Silhouettes
by Abundant E
Summary: She wanted peace, but she dreamed of war. Sequel to Heaven and Hell, Slight AU, SI.
1. the glory days

**A/N: A FEW THINGS BEFORE YOU LIKE START READING OR WHATEVER:**

**This is a sequel**, if you haven't read the first one then like...you won't really know. I was going to try and make it so you could read this without reading the first one but it didn't work out. So whatever! Next, is that it's in third person so Kiyomi's...erm, personality is like less upfront because you're not hearing her exact thoughts. Third, the first chapter is more of a prologue filling in things that happened during the fairly big time skip that _is necessary._ So it's a bit slow/weird/idk. **LAST BUT NOT LEAST - THIS IS SLIGHT AU**. You'll see why about half way. ANYWAY I hope you enjoy and here you go!

**.**

**-Silhouettes-**

**I**

**.**

The racket echoed through the courtyard. Someone began to shout, and then it was followed by yelling and the clanking of swords. Kiyomi didn't bother to look up when she heard the first noise — they fought all the time. But she finally took her eyes off the scroll and peered above it.

"Are you _stupid_?" Danzō snapped, scowling. He always scowled. "It was a _no_ jutsu spar! You just had to go and win, didn't you, Hiruzen?"

"We never said that!"

"It was _insinuated_. Or don't you know what that means?"

Within moments, Hiruzen was scowling as well. Kiyomi rolled her eyes and got up, wanting to punch them for being stupid. She wasn't supposed to be supervising — today had been a relaxation day, where she would do nothing but gossip with Haruka. But then Kagami had complained about Tobirama not being there to train them and within moments, Kiyomi had found herself dragged into something she hadn't wanted to do. As per usual.

"Stop it, both of you," Kiyomi said wearily. When neither of them bothered to listen to her and continued to glare, she thumped Danzō on the back. "Don't be stupid. Just do another spar. No jutsu." She looked around. "And where's Kagami?"

"He went off," Danzō mumbled, going over to where his sword lay on the ground. He had probably thrown it in a fit of rage. "Dunno where."

"Probably because _you two_ were being hurry up and spar so I can go home," Kiyomi ordered, picking up Hiruzen's sword and throwing it towards him. He caught it smoothly.

"Tobirama-sensei would give us advice!" Hiruzen said loudly as Kiyomi walked off. She snorted and didn't reply, feeling annoyed that _she_ — who had once been the just as equally great Kiyomi-_sensei_ — had been demoted to nothing more than Kiyomi.

Usually, she never trained them. They were left to their own devices, except for three times a week when Tobirama sparred with them and gave them advice. Yet she was no Tobirama — as much as she hated to admit it, he was talented. Though neither Danzō or Hiruzen — or Kagami, for that matter — could beat her, the idea of giving advice sounded stupid. What was she supposed to say?

By the time Kiyomi was back in her original spot, under a tree and away from view, she already felt tired. Her eyes were hurting, she hadn't had breakfast that morning and despite only being morning, the day was already horrible. She wanted to go back to her house and let Terumi look at her eyes. Though she wasn't supposed to have her eyes checked until a few days from now, they ached enough for her to want something for the pain.

She heard more shouting and wanted to throttle something, only to discover that Kagami had returned. With more people. Kiyomi knew that after this she would have a nice word to Haruka about her son.

"Kiyo-chan!" Kagami shouted across the courtyard. Within moments, his two friends — the girl was probably one of his many girlfriends — were staring at her, obviously confused at the stupid nickname. "Kiyo-chan, you don't mind if some of Hiruzen and I's friends join, do you?"

Danzō muttered something under his breath that Kiyomi didn't bother to catch.

"Who cares? Kiyomi isn't even training us! She isn't even supervising. Mitokado, how about you go on my team? Danzō and Kagami can go with you, Hokaru," Hiruzen suggested, and everyone jumped to follow his advice

Kiyomi had never met anyone with such natural leadership qualities. If she had been born like Hiruzen, the Uchiha clan would be running smoothly. Instead, she found that whenever she had to make some dumb speech — which was often, really — she always stuffed it up. There would always be some awkward moment. One time, at an Uchiha wedding, Kiyomi had forgotten that she was meant to do the speech and had showed up half drunk.

She couldn't remember when the Academy had been brought in before. But it was nearly completely up and running, with most children — except for the few Uchiha brats — were attending. Danzō's parents had attempted to try and pull him out but Sasuke had visited them. They changed their minds very quickly after that.

"Kiyomi-san, we have odd numbers," someone said politely. Kiyomi looked up from the scroll. The scroll was actually — she had brought it as a pretense for 'doing work'. "Would you mind sparring with us?"

It was the girl. Tobirama had told Kiyomi her name a thousand times. Koharu. Hiruzen had said it before.

"I don't think I can," Kiyomi said, trying to sound as apologetic as she could. "I sprained my ankle the other day."

She wasn't lying. Ryuu had thought it would be smart to see who could scale the cliff and get to the Kage Summit first while drunk. Kiyomi had fallen and landed safely — except her ankle had twisted. But it was a pathetic excuse, and by the confused and crestfallen look on Koharu's face, she thought the same.

"Is she _really_ a shinobi?" the other boy asked Kagami.

"Don't diss Kiyomi!" Danzō snapped. "You shouldn't even _be _here!"

"He's on our team," Kagami pointed out smoothly. "Tobirama-sensei said that we should have as much team bonding as possible."

"Please, Kiyomi-san?" Koharu pleaded, her voice going above the others.

In that moment, Kiyomi was fairly certain that she hated children. Maybe not children, but semi teenagers who were going through puberty. No wonder Tobirama had said something about 'being sick'. He probably had a permanent headache from them.

"Oh, fine. I suppose I can spar for a _bit_." When she saw all their faces light up, she added, "no chakra, though."

They all groaned but Kiyomi waved it off and got up, chucking the scroll on the ground. She didn't even care when Koharu peered at it and frowned when she saw it was blank. Someone had been destined to find out that trick ever since Kiyomi had started using it nearly four years ago.

"Now remember, if any of you start arguing, I'll send you home," she warned. "I don't care who does or says what. Are we ready?"

Hiruzen nodded eagerly. "You're on our team," he said, gesturing to him and the other boy. He had a long name that started with Mito. That was all Kiyomi knew.

"Ready?" Kagami asked, giving Koharu a wink. "First team that has two members down and unable to move loses! Three, two, one, _go!_"

"_What? _Unable to move—" Kiyomi didn't get any further before both Danzō and Kagami were at her.

And when she kicked Danzō in the nose and accidentally broke Koharu's wrist, Kiyomi realised that no matter whether a kid was going through puberty or not, they all sucked.

"I hate kids," she mumbled at the same time as Hiruzen danced around, shouting, "We won, we won, we won!"

**.**

"Hold on two seconds, Kiyomi-san, I'll just—"

There was a slight tearing sound before her vision became clear. Terumi peered into her view, smiling brightly while holding the bandage that had been around her eyes before.

"Is that better?" she asked, putting the bandage on the table next to them and rummaging around for something.

"I think," Kiyomi answered, shrugging. She blinked, trying to see properly before activating her Sharingan. The world did look less blurry and her eyes ached less than they had before, but she knew it wouldn't last that long. "It won't last."

Terumi continued looking on the table before she pulled out a sealing scroll. "There's not much I know about the Sharingan, Kiyomi-san," she admitted. "You are sure that there is nothing _anywhere_ which has information on how it can be repaired?"

Not unless Kiyomi killed someone. She didn't say that to Terumi, though. Ryuu had the Mangekyō. Kiyomi didn't want his wife to go around thinking that she wanted to kill him for it.

"Kiyomi-san, perhaps I could try—"

"Terumi, please, _just_ Kiyomi."

"Oh." Terumi turned red. "Right, right, of course. Habit."

Kiyomi had lost track of the amount of times that had been said. Ever since she had first discovered that Terumi was a medic-nin and had asked her to look at her eyes, it had been nothing but 'Kiyomi-san this, Kiyomi-san that'. Despite the amount of times she had corrected Terumi, it had never stuck.

"The Hokage doesn't know how to…heal them?" Terumi asked nervously. "Well, they cannot be healed, I suppose, but rather…I don't even know. They use a different type of chakra, did you know that? Isn't that brilliant?"

"Brilliant," Kiyomi repeated, laughing. "I guess."

"Oh and the things they can do—" Terumi stopped, her face going red once more. "Sorry, Kiyomi-sa—_Kiyomi_. It's just so fascinating, really."

"Maybe you should let Ryuu to show you his more often." Kiyomi stood up, walking over to where she had previously dumped her sake cup and draining it. "He loves to show off. He'll show anyone _anything_ if they ask to while complimenting him. Or they pay him."

"Oh, I am sure he wouldn't! He's a very nice man."

"Mmm." Kiyomi grinned over her sake cup, watching as Terumi fidgeted nervously, obviously not wanting to insult her husband. "So you do like him?"

"He's a very nice man," she repeated dutifully.

"Uh huh. He also has tendencies to be an arrogant and sexist pig."

"He's also a lovely father," Terumi added, frowning as if she were thinking of things to say.

Kiyomi didn't really have a reply to that. Every conversation with Terumi was always too honest and genuine for her. She was used to people who used sarcasm or people who didn't mean anything they said.

But Kiyomi really _didn't_ know what Ryuu was like as a father. She could remember when Terumi had her first son, could remember staying up all night outside a room with Haruka beside her. Instead of Terumi screaming in the room, though, it had been Ryuu. When the child had finally been born and they had all found it was a boy, names had been tossed around like garbage.

When Ryuu had decided on Yoshino, Kiyomi hadn't known what to say. Terumi had agreed at once, oblivious to the meaning behind the name. Two years later, another son had followed, who they named Toyozo. That name had made her laugh, where as the name Yoshino had made her cry.

"Yoshino-chan is so like him," Terumi was saying in a fond way, causing Kiyomi to blink. "I—well, I suppose it's rather surreal having children. I've always dreamed of them, you know. Arata always made fun of me for it."

"I've never wanted kids," Kiyomi said bluntly. "Besides, I practically have them anyway. A year ago, if you had asked Danzō who his mother was, he'd have said me. Now he's all moody and crap." Terumi flinched at the swear word. "I pity you when Yoshino and Toyozo reach that age."

"Kagami does love you so. He is forever talking about you, Kiyomi-san. He adores you."

Kiyomi shrugged. "Do you want a drink, Terumi? I have sake. Or tea. Or water, you know, if you want to be really boring."

"Oh, no, that's fine. I should be getting home. I really do dread leaving Ryuu with the kids for too long." Terumi began to pick up her things and seal them in her large scroll. "I mean, he is a good father! Really." She laughed.

"Of course he is." Kiyomi handed her a vial lying on the ground filled with something green and disgusting. "I'll call for you if my eyes start hurting."

"You can call me for anything at all, Kiyomi-san." Terumi smiled and before Kiyomi could stop it, she found herself in a hug. Not that it was _bad_ or anything. But still. It ended with an awkward pat on the back.

By the time all the good byes had been said and Kiyomi was alone, she collapsed on the couch. Really, she could prepare herself some dinner. But then again, she had never really got the hang on cooking. Some ingredients didn't work together and there was rarely anything good. The desserts in this world would never compare to the ones in her old one.

"Why was that girl here?"

Kiyomi threw the sake glass next to her out of instinct alone, though it soared past Tobirama's head and smashed into the wall. She stared at the broken cup in dismay.

"That was my good one," she told him, only slightly angry as she went over and began to pick up the pieces.

"Do you throw all of them at walls?"

She glared at him and dumped the pieces on a table. "No. They just _break_. Why are you here, anyway? I thought you were sick or something. Did you know that I had to train your stupid little students?"

"So I heard," Tobirama said dryly. "And you didn't answer my question. Why was that girl here?"

"_Terumi_." Kiyomi rolled her eyes and turned towards the bits of glass so she wouldn't have to look at him. She hadn't really bothered to tell anyone about her eyes. It didn't seem important — everyone knew that the Sharingan gradually disintegrated and often the Uchiha went blind from it. "We were talking. You know, that thing where you open your mouth and words come out?"

"Then why was she carrying a sealing scroll?"

"Are you my mother or something? Medic-nins carry sealing scrolls all the time," she pointed out, smiling sweetly at him.

Tobirama seemed to sense that he should be quiet. He rarely got the hint — Kiyomi often found herself shouting at him to be quiet most days. Yet today he didn't bother pressing it, and instead of pestering her for something, he went to the couch and slumped on it. She refused to look at him and ask him if anything was wrong.

"I have news," he said finally, the words hanging in the air.

"Was this _news_ so terrible that you had to make me train your students?" Kiyomi asked, sitting beside him. "What? Did someone die?"

"_No_." Tobirama rolled his eyes. "I didn't even ask you to train them. It was Kagami, and—"

"Just tell me the news."

He hesitated. "It isn't bad," he said. "Just something to be wary of."

Kiyomi waited and when he didn't say anything more, she nudged him hard in the ribs, causing him to glare at her.

"Ibuki has become Raikage," Tobirama mumbled and at first she didn't catch the words, but then they finally registered. "It isn't _bad_. Merely something to be careful of. The first Raikage died in perfectly normal circumstances."

"Really?"

He looked at her. "What, you think Ibuki murdered the first Raikage?"

"Who knows?" Kiyomi shrugged and got up from where she sat, suddenly feeling peeved off. She wanted to go out and run for a bit and then maybe beat a tree senselessly into the ground. "Is that all you came to say?"

"Maybe," was all Tobirama said as he got up and went into her kitchen. "Let me guess, you don't have any food?"

"Nothing edible."

She ignored him as he rummaged through her kitchen. Kiyomi knew that she couldn't cook for a reason — because Tobirama made half her meals. Not that she _asked_. He always complained about how his house was too messy and then he would come over to hers. And he ate like a horse, meaning he would grow hungry and then make himself food. Ever since the first time he had made dinner for _just_ himself and Kiyomi had kicked him, he always made extra.

By the time there was proper food to eat, Kiyomi was half asleep on the couch. Tobirama kicked her in her side, waking her instantly.

"You don't have to do that," she snapped irritably, getting up and staring suspiciously at the food. It looked normal. She grabbed a plate and slumped on the couch once more, ignoring Tobirama looking at her.

"If you're _really_ bothered by this Ibuki thing—" he began but she quickly cut him off.

"I'm not." When he gave her an exasperated look, Kiyomi rolled her eyes. "I'm being _serious_. Like, serious. This isn't a huge deal, like you said. Ibuki loves me, just like everyone else."

"I had hoped you'd get less sarcastic over the years, but that clearly didn't happen."

"Well _I _had hoped you'd become less of an asshole over the years, but it seems sometimes we just don't get what we want." Kiyomi smiled at him, sickly sweet, before shoving the food in her mouth and chewing extra loudly with her mouth open just to bother him.

She couldn't remember the last time they had sparred. It gave her an immense type of joy, slamming grown men into the ground. The amount of times their impromptu spars had turned deadly were countless. After a while, Kiyomi had begun to improve, begun to actually _injure_ him. She could still see it, the first time she had stabbed Tobirama through the ribs and he had cursed up a storm. In the end, she had laughed the entire way back to Konoha — at that point, they didn't bother sparring in Konoha due to damage.

Sparring with Tobirama felt good, mostly because whenever Kiyomi found herself training younger kids – it happened often, with the opening of the Academy and the lack of good teachers — she would struggle to hold back. Half of the time, she found herself somewhat _wishing_ for a war, or some type of distraction that could get her mind off things. Yet no one wanted that except her.

When Tobirama had finished his food, she watched him dump it in the kitchen and look around for a bit.

"Where are my scrolls?" he asked, frowning at her. "I thought I left them here."

"They're in my room," Kiyomi replied. "You just _dumped_ them there. You think my room is some sort of trash zone?"

"_No_." She heard him muttering other things under his breath, probably insulting her in some way or another as he got his stupid scrolls.

Kiyomi rarely saw Hashirama working, yet there didn't seem to be a time where Tobirama _wasn't_ working. When he wasn't training the kids — and this didn't just include Kagami, Danzō and the others — his face was hidden under scrolls. Tobirama seemed to do more of the Hokage work than his brother, but he didn't actually want the title.

Or at least, that was what he had said. Kiyomi couldn't imagine there being any arguments about who should be Hokage between the two. For Tobirama, it was too petty, and Hashirama would rather cry and burn his face off than argue with his brother.

She had never seen either of them go on missions that often. Then again, Kiyomi didn't really leave Konoha unless it was to beat up Tobirama on the outskirts. But she went on more missions than them, which was saying something as she was required to stay in Konoha as often as possible. Something about clan head responsibility, but she couldn't really remember. The mission count between her and Tobirama was something like five. No one ever went on missions with Hashirama unless they were Sasuke.

"One's missing," Tobirama complained as he sat down. She hated that he never sounded whiny when he complained, but rather rational. He always sounded rational, in a stupid way. "Did you touch any of them?"

"It wasn't important, probably. You do realise that you don't even need to read half of them? I just toss most of them to other people and they sort through the crap and give me the important ones."

Tobirama looked at her, vaguely horrified. It was hard to tell with him, though. "You could miss something. What if the people who _help _you are withholding information?"

Kiyomi laughed. "Like that would happen." She didn't bother telling him that she had someone who she had hated years ago helping her. It didn't seem important. Though she didn't _trust_ Kosuke, he was fine.

There was no more conversation after that. Tobirama hated talking. Everyone knew that. And Kiyomi couldn't be bothered making him talk. Dealing with little kids always made her tired — though then again, they could barely be called little — and she wanted to sleep for ten years, which was a regular feeling for her. She dozed off somewhere after Tobirama had cursed under his breath for the hundredth time and had thrown a scroll at a wall. He was probably wishing he took her advice, but he wouldn't because the advice came from her.

Every now and then, Kiyomi jolted awake, realising that she was on the couch and that she should _probably_ move. Tobirama had fallen asleep, though she knew the moment she moved an inch he would be up and going. But she couldn't be bothered moving even an inch, so she fell back asleep and didn't bother going back to her bed.

The moment the very first ray of sun hit her face, Kiyomi jolted awake again as if it burned. Her forehead was covered in sweat, something which she found very gross yet had to tolerate. She could feel goose bumps on her arms, left over from some dream that she couldn't remember. It probably had Daichi in it. Half of the time, her nightmares were filled with his face that she could remember as clearly as anything. He would always be smiling.

Whenever Madara made a cameo in her dreams, he was always frowning. Or scowling. Often both at the same time.

Kiyomi almost screamed when she looked to her right and saw Tobirama. He looked half dead whenever he slept. She felt the sudden urge to get some ink and smear it all over his face. But that would involve getting up. Something she would definitely have to do. It was barely morning — the sun was _just_ up, a few rays hitting her face through one of the windows — and she already felt restless.

In her old life, the day didn't start until two in the afternoon, and it _really_ began at midnight. Now, Kiyomi couldn't sleep more than six hours without wanting to murder someone.

Even though it was very definitely the middle of winter, Kiyomi felt hot as she made her way into what could be called the kitchen. No one specifically _called_ it the kitchen here. Was there even a word for it? She didn't know. All she knew was that the kitchen was a dump, something which was definitely not her fault. Unlike a certain someone, she _always_ put things away.

Despite the fact that the tea scalded her throat, she always drained it as if it were a shot. Not that anyone did shots here. It felt oddly nice, the burn, though more often than not she ended up burning her tongue.

After tea came the run, and then after the run came training someone or either being trained _by_ someone, then a dumb Uchiha meeting. Those were always tedious. Most of the time Kiyomi couldn't properly focused, for she was too busy being involved in an immature glaring contest with Kosuke. But she was the clan head — no one could defy her. Not even Ryuu. Though she _tried_ to never let the power get to her head, it was obvious that even though she wasn't technically an Uchiha, she had somehow gotten a few of their traits.

Terumi often visited every month or so for her Sharingan. The visits were always done in quiet, though Tobirama had nearly interrupted that. Whenever Ryuu complained about it, it was always good to mention the words 'menstrual cycle'. After that, he would always leave the room.

Sometimes Terumi complained about it, saying she felt bad for lying to her husband. But Kiyomi didn't really care. It was better this way if no one knew. She had heard of a few people having difficulties with their Sharingan but never as much as hers. Sometimes if Kiyomi had to interrogate someone for Konoha — something she loathed doing — her eyes would burn so much afterwards that she would have to rest for an entire day.

The healing sessions weren't too bad. Terumi was nice, and always was happy to make pleasant conversation that didn't involve going into awkward subjects – like Tobirama. Not to mention that for some reason, she practically worshiped Kiyomi. It was like a mini Danzō. Except now, Kiyomi could barely get Danzō to look at her without him scowling. But it didn't matter because he was Tobirama's problem now.

Kiyomi left the house, not bothering to wake Tobirama as she nearly cried at the cold, even though it was only just autumn. It didn't take much to circulate chakra throughout her body and keep her warm, but it could only do so much. And the cold kept her awake. Tobirama had made her stay up late by being annoying with his stupid scrolls.

Her morning runs were mostly peaceful. Occasionally Mito would be outside her house and would invite her in for breakfast. Breakfast at Mito's was practically a feast for a hundred people. Kiyomi didn't know _what_ Tsunade and Nawaki ate, but it certainly was a lot.

It felt odd seeing Tsunade in the flesh. When she had first been born, Kiyomi had nearly died at seeing a canon character that was…well, in freaking _Naruto's_ time. And she was fairly certain that Tsunade hadn't been Hashirama's direct daughter. Not that it really mattered. Tsunade still occasionally ambushed Kiyomi and called her 'Aunt Kiyomi'. The only reason why that was so gross was because it kind of sounded like she and Tobirama were married or something, because he was called 'Uncle'.

Kiyomi just finished her second loop and was on her third when she passed the Hokage's house again, only to see Mito standing outside, holding a cup of tea and beckoning her over.

"Tsunade saw you from the window and ordered me to invite you in," Mito said, smiling sheepishly. "Do you mind?"

"No, that's fine." Kiyomi grinned as Mito opened the door and just as she predicted, she was ambushed immediately by Tsunade, who jumped up and down while Nawaki struggled to run towards her.

"If you keep doing that, Kiyomi might not want to stay!" Mito called as she entered the kitchen.

Tsunade tried to snort, though it sounded more like a mix between laughter and breathing. "My father's the Hokage! Doesn't matter what she wants."

Kiyomi couldn't help but laugh. Tsunade drove most people mad, though they had to tolerate her due to her status. Tobirama secretly hated her and avoided every confrontation with her and Nawaki with stupid excuses that usually involved Kiyomi. Hashirama absolutely adored her, and it was a common sight in Konoha to see the two walking together, Nawaki resting on Hashirama's shoulders as well.

They were an endearing and a nice change from Danzō's rolling eyes and Kagami's womanising. Kiyomi wasn't too sure where he got it from — perhaps Ryuu, or maybe he had been exposed to Akiye — but she had heard rumours about him parading around Konoha and getting every girl he could. Danzō was just as bad, though in a different way. The only one of them that remained untouched by teenage tendencies was Hiruzen.

By the time the table was set with mountains of food by Mito, Hashirama emerged, smiling broadly as his two children charged towards his legs.

"Daddy, look!" Nawaki said, though it was more of a scream. He gestured to Kiyomi with his pudgy hands.

"Yes, I can see." Hashirama ruffled his son's hair as his daughter ambushed him with a long story about her morning. It wasn't a very exciting one — merely consisting of her waking up, then ordering Nawaki to wake up, then spotting Kiyomi by the window…

But it could have been the world's best story for the way Hashirama reacted.

"Eat as much as you can, Kiyomi," Mito ordered, smiling. "There's more than enough for seconds."

There was more than enough for thirds, fourths and probably fifths. This didn't bother any of them, though, as they all piled their food up with more food than Kiyomi probably ate in one day. Maybe even two. She sometimes found herself forgetting about eating, to Haruka's anguish. Some days there was just too much to do, too much to organise. But most nights Tobirama would come over to mess up her house once again, and he would make something and she would eat it.

"Do you have any plans for the day?" Hashirama asked her as he demolished his fourth bowl of soup.

"Haruka will probably drag me somewhere," Kiyomi replied, shrugging. She hadn't seen her for awhile, which generally meant an ambush would be coming. Not to mention the stupid meeting. At least they were usually short.

"You haven't been getting out of the house much," Mito said worriedly as she somehow ate while managing to wipe Nawaki's mouth of food simultaneously. "Are you sick? Ill? Is there something we should know, Kiyomi?"

Hashirama snorted and quickly hid it with a cough. Kiyomi glared viciously at him, silently willing him to shut up but knowing it would never happen. He said whatever he wanted to, whenever he wanted to. Whatever was on his mind would be said. Though Tobirama had ordered him to remain silent about certain things, Kiyomi was pretty sure he had slipped up a few times. Perhaps more than a few times if the knowing looks from Sasuke and Ryuu were anything.

"I'm not sick," Kiyomi assured her, though it didn't sound very convincing. "Just tired, I guess."

Mito was about to say something that Kiyomi knew she wouldn't like, but thankfully Tsunade chose that very moment to complain about how Nawaki stole a specific vegetable she had wanted from _her_ soup. Within moments they were both crying and Kiyomi watched as Hashirama threw back his head and laughed, while Mito told Tsunade to go eat outside after she slapped Nawaki.

"Ah, children," Hashirama said fondly. "They're great." He gave her a meaningful glance.

Kiyomi ignored him and finished her food, already feeling full. She wanted to cry when Mito saw her empty bowl and began giving her seconds.

"You are too thin, Kiyomi!" Mito huffed as she sat herself back down. "You run too much. You should eat breakfast, lunch _and _dinner, with snacks in between."

"I eat dinner," she protested meekly, trying her best to stuff the food in her mouth. "Besides, it's not like I'm growing. I'm practically old now."

Mito shook her head while Hashirama laughed and raised his cup of tea. "I agree," he said. "Old. At least we don't look like Tobirama. We have many things to be thankful about."

Almost immediately, Mito went to Tobirama's rescue, and the two began to argue half heartedly about 'not insulting siblings'. Kiyomi tuned out, staring blankly at her cup of tea. Old. It was something she often was told — she looked old now. She didn't know what it was, for she looked the same as she always did, except she had grown her hair longer in the past five years.

Other than that, she looked as she always did. Yet Akiye always complained about how 'old' she looked, and Haruka was often concerned. Ryuu joked about grey hairs, Danzō and Kagami whined about how she probably knew their great grandparents and Kiyomi had heard other people saying the same thing. The only one who hadn't said anything about it was Tobirama.

It never really bothered her. Twenty seven — nearly twenty eight — wasn't that old at all, yet in this time it was. Even though it was a peace time, people often died from the mental and physical strain that they had on their bodies in their younger years. Kiyomi's knee remained strong, though, and even though she struggled to sleep a lot, there was nothing wrong with her.

In her opinion, she didn't look old. She didn't stay inside that much. Everything was good.

Nawaki grabbed her with his hands, scaring her. He grinned and Kiyomi laughed at the food on his face. Mito was too engrossed in arguing with Hashirama about sibling relationships to wipe it off.

"Kiyo, Kiyo, you watch me read?" Nawaki asked in his loud and very childish voice. It caused Mito to look up and wipe his mouth, shaking her head with a fond smile on her face. Hashirama rose and began to clear the many plates after going outside and bringing Tsunade in. She returned to her seat while glaring at everyone, though she purposely smiled at Kiyomi.

"I can watch you read, if you want," Kiyomi replied.

"You have to watch _me _read, too!" Tsunade said loudly, crossing her arms over her chest. "And I'll read first!"

"No, I will!" Nawaki whined. "I said to Kiyo first!"

"Who cares? I'm older."

"Alright, you two, enough," Mito said gently, ruffling both of their hair. "How about you take it in turns to read sentences?" Before either of them could say anything else, she pushed them towards another room. "And Nawaki can read the first sentence!" she shouted into the other room.

Kiyomi wanted to laugh at their childish antics but didn't get a chance, as she had both of them pulling her towards a room, arguing the entire way about what book to read. It seemed like playful banter, the type she often saw Hiruzen, Danzō and Kagami having except in a less childlike way.

When Tsunade dumped a book in Kiyomi's lap and gave her younger brother a look that dared him to argue, everything was finally blissfully silent. They both took it in turns to read, with Nawaki stumbling over words and Tsunade laughing at him, despite the fact that he was only three and couldn't be expected to know anything.

"Then the ducks had an ar-argu-ar-" Nawaki stuttered.

"_Argument_," Tsunade snapped, rolling her eyes. "Ducks can't even talk. This book is silly."

"Then why you pick it?"

She didn't have a reply for that one, and Kiyomi shook her head and carefully lifted Nawaki off her lap where he had been half sitting in it.

"I should go, you two. You both read wonderfully," she told them, trying her best to not sound patronising. Even though it was a slight lie — Tsunade stumbled over words a lot as well, and Hashirama had told her that she much preferred being in the training yard with him which meant that she hadn't learned how to read and write that well.

They were both probably better than any of the other children their age in Konoha. Despite the fact that Tsunade was prone to bad moods — and if she woke up angry, she _stayed_ angry — she was generally happy. Sometimes. Nawaki seemed not to care about anything unless it concerned his sister.

Mito and Hashirama were reading over scrolls in the kitchen, both of them looking up when Kiyomi walked in.

"I should go," Kiyomi said, and before they could come up with some excuse as to why she should stay and eat more food, she quickly added, "I have a clan meeting. You know the Uchiha. Always something wrong." It was a half joke, as they weren't _that_ bad.

Hashirama smiled in an understanding way. "Of course. Good luck with your meeting, Kiyomi."

She nodded and after Mito had hugged her and Nawaki and Tsunade had slammed into her legs, she finally managed to escape. It was really the only word she could think of. Of _course_ Kiyomi liked every single one of them — they were all just a little too optimistic and energetic. Considering she spent most of her time with Ryuu, Akiye or Tobirama, all of which were cynical, it was a bit odd entering their household.

They tended to take up more time and energy as well. Ryuu was easy to send on his way. Generally Kiyomi would just give him a bit of alcohol and tell him to go bother Terumi. Akiye was harder to get rid of but she rarely stayed for long, often disappearing off to mysterious places. The hardest person to rid herself of was Tobirama, for he came to her house just about every night, claiming his house was 'too messy to do any work'. He would then mess up her place and Kiyomi would have to clean it up, only for him to repeat the same thing either the next night or the night after.

Sometimes, all Kiyomi wanted to do was drop everything and go live in a forest. She would take nothing — or maybe a few things — and then become some type of epic mercenary. Then again, she had a feeling she would only last a day or two before she would miss a proper bed or the cold would kill her.

For now, she was stuck in Konoha. But there would come a time when Kiyomi knew everyone would annoy the shit out of her to the point where she hated them all, and she would then leave.

Tobirama was gone when she got back. He had left some scrolls lying around, most likely to finish that night. Kiyomi noticed that there were a few sake bottles. Had she drunk them last night? She couldn't really remember and didn't care to. But she had to clean up, make her house _semi _presentable otherwise she'd have Kosuke on her back for weeks about her being 'negligent'.

By the time the house was semi okay, Kiyomi heard the sound of Akiye arriving — shouting and the slam of a door.

"Kiyomi," she greeted, winking as she flopped onto the couch. "I'm early. What a surprise."

"You're always early to bother me."

Akiye shrugged. "But I'm still early." She looked around nosily, as she always did. "Where's Tobirama? I would have thought he'd be here."

"This isn't his house," Kiyomi said dryly as she poured some sake.

"It may as well be."

Kiyomi ignored that and handed Akiye the glass. She still felt weird around Akiye. There was no reasonable explanation for it — sometimes things just felt awkward. And she didn't think it was because that outburst that happened years ago. It was something else, as if Akiye wanted to say something but never did and instead gave her looks that were borderline concerned.

Not that it had been awkward for all that time. There had been a few years where it had been brilliant — they had laughed and mocked each other just like before, had gotten drunk and ran around the Uchiha compound doing impressions of Akiye's father — but then it went bad. It went sour, it went weird, until Kiyomi didn't really know what to say. She had never been good at saying things. Generally, Kiyomi just said whatever the hell she wanted to but she _couldn't _around Akiye anymore.

By the time the next person arrived, Kiyomi jumped up eagerly for once and practically ran to the door. Unlike Akiye, most people actually knocked before entering. Even Ryuu. He stood at the door and gave her a half hearted greeting before shoving something in her face and going into the lounge.

"Ya look like shit," Kiyomi heard Akiye say to him, though she only got a grunt in reply.

When other people filed in until there was all of them — which meant the seven of them, including her — Kiyomi felt a headache. It was just like dealing with kids, except worse. Clan meetings always ended up with something either drunk, hurt or pissed off. Sometimes all three. Haruka always tried to placate things but it never worked. Eikichi would remain silent and let things happen. Kiyomi had a feeling that he secretly took amusement at people making a fool of themselves.

Kosuke was the last to arrive, as usual. He sauntered into the room, and just like Akiye, he never knocked.

"You're late," Kiyomi said moodily, as she always did. It was more of a habit, now.

"I got held up," Kosuke replied, not bothering to give more of an explanation. "So, what are we talking about today? Someone set something on fire? A parent complained his poor little baby boy isn't being trained hard enough?"

Ryuu rolled his eyes. "You would think that people learn to shut up with old age."

Haruka kicked him, while Kosuke didn't even budge but instead gave them all a sardonic smile. Kiyomi wanted to slap them all. The only reasonable ones — or the only ones who were nice and quiet — were Kisho and Eikichi, usually. Sometimes Kisho had a lot to say but generally, it wasn't like when Kosuke simply said whatever the hell he wanted.

"Who is guarding the village?" Eikichi asked. "Out of us."

"Some random people who I don't know who they are," Kiyomi said dismissively. She had gotten people who were semi capable to write their names down on a scroll for guarding Konoha and other small towns in the Fire Country. Most of the time, she didn't know who they were. "I got someone to tell them, though."

"Are you going to tell them about the new Raikage?" Kisho interjected smoothly, smiling.

Kiyomi forced a smile on her face while silently hoping that maybe, just maybe, Kisho could die in a hole somewhere. "Oh, right. Some guy was named the Raikage. Ibuki, that's his name."

"Isn't that the guy ya hate?" Akiye asked, scrunching up her face. "Daichi's friend."

Everyone fell silent, and Kiyomi rolled her eyes when she felt everyone looking at her. "Yeah, he was Daichi's friend. But I don't hate him." She glared at Akiye. "I don't know where you got that from."

"I take it that's all, then?" Kosuke said loudly. "There never is much to discuss. Unfortunate, really. But I suppose that's what we get when we leave in such a _wonderful _peaceful time. Never any action."

"Stop reminiscing you slaughtering innocents as a teenager," Ryuu retorted. "Just because _you _love killing doesn't mean everyone else does."

"Enough. Stop taking the bait, Ryuu," Kiyomi said, and because she was clan head and her word was practically law, they both fell silent. Very occasionally, she found that being clan head some very nice perks. Like giving threats and silencing people with just one word. "There'll probably be a Kage meeting to welcome him or whatever. It isn't that important. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little heads over." She smiled sweetly and stood up. "That's it. The rest is boring shit I can deal with on my own."

She saw them all exchange glances, which pissed her off. The great thing about their meetings was that everyone was divided. Kiyomi never ever looked bad or had any problems because everyone was too busy arguing amongst themselves. But having them _exchange glances_ was just...wrong. They were the Uchiha clan, known for hating people for no reason.

"What?" she demanded. "Is there something else?"

Akiye coughed, grinning. "Ya birthday, Kiyomi," she said excitedly. "We—well, a few of us were thinking that it should be a clan celebration. Only one of ya other birthdays was like that and it might make the clan..._bond_. We seem quite separated. Ya don't even know everyone's names."

"Does anyone?" Ryuu asked, laughing. "But I agree. Nothing like a good feast."

"It costs," Kiyomi said finally, after a moment of silence where she pretended to think about it. Like she would ever invite the entire Uchiha clan to her birthday. The very thought made her cringe. "And we could spend that money on _better_ things."

"It'll be fun," Akiye continued. "We are not close as a clan. We should be unified, as one. It could help if something goes bad."

"No."

There were more looks around the table, but Kiyomi didn't care. She remained standing, glaring at all of them.

"I think the _real _problem here," Kosuke began, "is that our dear clan princess is starting to feel old."

Akiye fake-gasped. "Nonsense. Kiyomi is still radiant and young. Ya are the one that looks a fat old pig, Kosuke."

"She's right," Kiyomi said, smiling sweetly. "I'm still young and great. So don't you worry your head. It's not because of that. I think it's stupid having more than a hundred people invited to something that doesn't even matter. Twenty eight isn't even a special age."

They all frowned, and Kiyomi wanted to roll their eyes. She was glad that Akiye had never found about eighteenth birthdays, or when you turned twenty one. Konoha would have been destroyed.

"Come on," Ryuu said loudly. "I want to go home. Just accept the stupid thing already, Kiyomi."

"Technically, you can't talk to me like that. I _am_ clan head," Kiyomi said, though it was half hearted and Ryuu only snorted. "Fine. But I'm not organising it. I'm not doing anything for it. I'm just going to show up, get drunk, and leave."

"Lovely! Just what I wanted," Akiye said, beaming. "I'll take care of _everything_. None of ya need to worry." She stood up, mock saluting Kiyomi. "See ya around."

Everyone started to leave, Ryuu mumbled about being hungry while Kosuke just walking out, shooting her a grin as he did so. Kisho bowed, which she didn't really get, and Eikichi simply offered a small smile. Then there was only Haruka who remained sitting, a worried expression on her face. Kiyomi hated it when she looked like that — it always meant a lecture was coming on.

"Kiyomi," Haruka began, looking nervous. "I'm worried about you."

"Why? Because I'm turning twenty eight and getting _so _old?" She rolled her eyes and slumped in the chair, staring at the ceiling. It was a rather nice ceiling.

"No. Because you...you seem tired, you are far more irritable than you've ever been, and I'm just—I'm worried about you. I really am. And you never talk anymore. You train a lot, you stay inside, so why? Is there something you're not telling me?"

It was the same question Mito had asked. "I'm not pregnant," Kiyomi said bitterly.

Haruka laughed. "I don't think you're _pregnant_. I meant mentally. Is there something going on?"

"Nothing. I've told you before that I'm fine." Kiyomi put a smile on her face — the type she had done when she was a fair bit younger. Or at least, she hoped it was. "Look, I'd tell you. We're friends, y'know? That's what friends do. Vent, vent, vent. Especially girls. So like, if there _was_ something, then you'd be the first to know."

"I know. But this is recent. I don't know. You've been acting strange. Just—" Haruka stopped, and for one moment she looked very sad and very old. "Tell me if you need anything, okay?"

"Right. Of course." Kiyomi frowned when Haruka stood up and left without another word. "Okay," she said, though no one was there to hear it.

She was fine. It wasn't even a lie or anything. Maybe it was because when there had been something to worry about endlessly — Madara, or Izuna, or when she was a lot younger, her own freaking hide as she fought and killed other people — but now...there was no one. Kiyomi could worry all she wanted about Kagami or Danzō or Hiruzen, but in the end she had such confidence in them. They would be fine. She just knew it.

Part of her missed yelling at Madara. It had been fun, in a weird and twisted way. She missed arguing with Akiye about stupid things, even _living _with her. Everyday had been different and filled with chaos.

When Kiyomi went to bed, she stared at the ceiling. She was good. She had never been at a better place physically — her chakra control was strong, as was her strength. Her Sharingan was a bit annoying and caused annoying pains but it was fine, usually, unless she had a really bad day.

"I'm good," she told the ceiling. "I am."

**.**

**A/N:** I cannot thank you all enough for your support during the kind of wait. I have so much like that I need to upload (not for the sequel haha sorry) but like, the edited H&H is lying on my laptop but...y'know, I'm lazy. But I will get it up! Also, Tobirama's massive chapter might be coming. Or it might not be, because it's pretty much written but like, you will see a bit of the sequel from Tobirama's perspective so? Who knows? Also the cover picture is Tobirama because he's Kiyomi's BFFL, okay.

ANYWAY, you are all freaking brilliant, your PM's, reviews, all the conversations I've had with you guys, it makes me so happy and just...I love you guys. So thank you, thank you, thank you! And welcome to the sequel? This chapter is a bit slow but I can promise you that things...happen? in the next chapter? xD

Okay, okay. Thank you all very much for your support and yeah, ...welcome to the sequel? It's going to be a ride into hell.

Abundant E


	2. sweet twenty eighth

**-Silhouettes-**

**II**

**.**

The day of her brilliant twenty eight birthday bash, Kiyomi woke at around seven in the morning. For once, she wasn't sprawled out on the couch drooling on the far too expensive cushions – a 'joke' birthday gift from Ryuu from awhile ago. Instead, she was on her bed, the covers somehow lying on the floor and the pillows on either side of her.

"Fuck," was all she could really say. Kiyomi stared at the ceiling and waited for the image to disappear, waited until that weird mix up between reality and nightmare faded until she knew she actually _was_ lying in bed. Safe. Happy. And all that other bullshit.

Once the image faded, Kiyomi slumped and buried her face into one of the cushions.

"I'm twenty eight," she told the pillow, as if it would somehow start talking and congratulate her for living this long in such a shit world. "Happy birthday me."

Yet she was practically fifty or something. That was gross. The only good thing was that no one actually _knew _that – well, maybe Daichi, but he was buried underneath layers and layers of earth somewhere in Kumo. Kiyomi had made a make shift grave from him in the back of her house, out of pure respect. When Ryuu had found it, he had laughed at her so hard he started choking.

"Why do you have some shitty homemade grave of someone who we both hated?" he had asked, shaking his head and laughing.

Kiyomi had made some excuse about respect. Part of her had made it in hope that he would see it, somehow. That maybe he was kind of here and had been reincarnated again. That he would see the grave and understand that she was sorry. Even though she really didn't need to be. It had been some kind of stupid and twisted misunderstanding.

But if Daichi were here, would he tell her she was twenty eight or fifty or forty something?

The image of her nightmare wouldn't go away. Kiyomi kept seeing it, over and over again until eventually, she got up and ran laps down the hallway. Tobirama was miraculously missing – probably the reason why she had actually been in her bed instead of lying on a rather uncomfortable couch. But because of that, her stomach kept grumbling loudly.

She half expected Akiye to waltz through the door at any moment with some type of stupid present. Last year, Kiyomi had been given hair pins. They were dainty, delicate and were probably covered in dust, lying in a box somewhere. Akiye had done it on purpose, no doubt. And this year would probably be the same – joke gifts because Kiyomi hated things given to her that did nothing. Why did she need another kimono? Why did she need more kunai? Did people think she had no clothes or no weapons?

Sometimes, people in the clan attempted to give her gifts. Like flowers and perfumes and subtle things that clearly said _start acting like a girl_. Those presents generally were passed on to Mito and Terumi, because Mito was too polite to ask whether or not it was originally a gift for her and Terumi was too oblivious to realise.

No one marched in Kiyomi's door, leaving her to eat a shitty breakfast made from random crap alone. Her house wasn't usually empty – either Tobirama was there, or Kagami was there with his latest girlfriend. For once, there was peace and quiet and all that other incredibly boring stuff.

Kiyomi left her dreary house once she had waited enough time for _most _people to be up. Being up insanely early always meant that she had to wait before actually visiting people. She almost regretted leaving her house.

"Good morning, Kiyomi-sama!" some random Uchiha said to her as she walked past him. He was smiling brightly, holding painfully colourful flowers. "Happy birthday!" He held them out to her, staring expectantly. Kiyomi looked at him and finally took them.

"Right. Erm, thanks, I guess…" She trailed off, staring at him as she tried to place a name. No name came to her. All the Uchiha looked the same. Sure, she could pick Haruka out in a crowd anytime, or Ryuu and Kagami. But not the annoying nameless ones who all shouted out _Kiyomi-sama, Kiyomi-sama, Kiyomi-sama!_

"You're welcome, Kiyomi-sama! I am looking forward to tonight." He bowed so low his nose nearly touched the ground, before standing straight up and walking off.

Without bothering to look at the flowers, Kiyomi continued walking, praying that no one else would stop her and give her more brightly coloured flowers. It should be a sin. One of the flowers looked hot pink. Was that enough possible?

Eventually, she reached Haruka's, where no one would ever get her. Mostly because Eikichi would open the door and stare them down.

"Here she is!" Haruka said brightly when she slid open the door, smiling widely. Unlike the other Uchiha, her smile looked harmless and genuine. "Our birthday girl."

"Your birthday girl?" Kiyomi questioned as she held the flowers out to Haruka. "Here, have them. I don't need them. And I am pretty sure that I can be called a dainty _lady_ now."

"A birthday lady, then." She looked at the flowers. "They're yours. I couldn't possibly take them."

"Nah, it's an order. Just take the stupid things."

Haruka smiled. "Very well then. Now, how do you feel about a delicious breakfast? I know you're probably used to _far better_ cooking but –"

Kiyomi slapped her on the back playfully and went into the kitchen, where Eikichi and Kagami sat. Neither of them were talking to each other. Eikichi looked too focused on a scroll as he shovelled food into his mouth, while Kagami looked dreamily off into the distance.

"Are you in love again, Kagami?" Kiyomi asked as she sat next to him, ruffling his hair.

"Kiyo-chan!" he greeted, looking surprised. "Not at all. I was just thinking how _lucky_ I am to be invited to a very pretty someone's birthday feast tonight."

"_Everyone_ was invited," Eikichi said dryly, looking up from his scroll. "Everyone."

Kagami ignored him. "Have you had a good birthday so far, Kiyo-chan?"

"It's only been about two hours," Kiyomi replied, shrugging.

"But in those two hours did people fawn over you? Did you get breakfast in bed? Did you wake up to thousands and thousands of gifts from adoring fans?"

"No one's birthday is like that," Haruka said, appearing with the flowers in some type of ornamental vase that looked way too pretty. She put them in the middle of the table, smiling. "But I did make you some breakfast, Kiyomi."

"Good!" Kagami said loudly, patting his stomach. "I'm _starving_."

"So am I," Kiyomi admitted, smiling slightly. She had made herself a rather shitty breakfast before she had left. Haruka's cooking would be a thousand times better, though.

Haruka began to bring dishes into the room, placing them on the table and smiling as she handed them all bowls and chopsticks. The table was covered within moments. Kagami looked like he was drooling.

"Can we start? Can we start?" he asked, jumping up and down on his seat and looking like a five year old boy.

"Of course! Dig in, Kiyomi," Haruka encouraged, sitting down next to Eikichi and beginning to fill up her bowl.

There was silence at the table except for Kagami's loud slurping and munching. Eikichi ate so quietly Kiyomi almost forgot he was there. That was how it always was with Eikichi, though. He seemed to slip past everyone, always quiet and calm. She had rarely seen him get angry or anything. In a way, it made him the perfect match for Haruka. But then again, she had never seen them ever get particularly…romantic. Kagami was their only child, and Haruka had never expressed any interest in any other children.

"Are you excited for your party tonight?" Haruka asked. She looked more excited. Kiyomi knew that it had been Haruka who had done all the planning.

"I guess so," she replied, shrugging. "It should be good."

"It will be _better _than good," Haruka assured her. "I've made sure of it."

Kiyomi laughed and finished her food, placing the chopsticks on the top of the bowl.

"Do you have any other plans for the day, Kiyo-chan?" Kagami asked eagerly. "Maybe we can go outside of Konoha and spar!"

"I am sure Kiyomi has better things to do with her time," Eikichi told him.

"Well, no, not really. I honestly have nothing really planned for today," Kiyomi admitted. She didn't know why she felt embarrassed saying it. It wasn't really that bad. But for some reason she would have liked to have someone to spend her birthday with. Not someone like Kagami but someone like…

She stopped when she realised who her thoughts were going to.

"We can spar today if you'd like, Kagami," she told him, smiling. "I'd like to."

His face lit up instantly. "Of course! We can invite Danzo, as well, and Hiruzen! Maybe even the others. You don't mind, do you?"

"No, that's fine," she assured him.

"And we can go now?"

Kiyomi laughed when she heard Haruka sigh. "Yes, we can go now."

Kagami leaped up immediately, kissing his mother on the cheek and smiling brightly. "I'll look after Kiyo-chan!" he told her before hurrying into his room.

"You don't have to, you know," Haruka said gently. She turned to Eikichi. "You could take him out to spar later on, couldn't you?"

He shrugged. "Yes, if he wanted to."

"See? Kiyomi, really, there's no need for you to do this. I'm sure you wanted to spend your birthday with…someone else."

Kiyomi knew exactly who Haruka meant. "No, honestly, it's fine. I want to. Seriously."

Haruka sighed and opened her mouth to say something else, but Kagami came bounding in, all dressed up with his forehead protector tied up in his messy hair. He flashed them all a smile.

"I'm ready, Kiyo-chan! Should we go now?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go." Kiyomi got up and ruffled his hair. He hurried ahead, shouting all of the things that they could do.

"Thank you, Kiyomi," Haruka said before she left. She smiled. "You shouldn't have to do this. It's your –"

"I know," she quickly interrupted. "And for the last time, it's fine." Kiyomi patted Haruka's shoulder before hurrying after Kagami, who was already walking through the Uchiha neighbourhood, talking loudly to himself.

Kagami led the way, knocking loudly on Danzo's door and shouting for him to come. Thankfully, neither of his parents answered the door. That would have been awkward, Kiyomi knew. Danzo came out, looking slightly annoyed.

"What is it?" he grumbled, before he noticed Kiyomi. "Oh. Are we training?"

"Yeah! Kiyo-chan offered to train us. Hiruzen as well. Isn't that exciting?"

Danzo shrugged. "Yeah. Cool."

They went to Hiruzen's next, where Sasuke answered the door and grinned widely when he saw them.

"Well, well, if it isn't the lucky birthday lady!" he exclaimed, grinning as he kissed Kiyomi on the cheek. "And of course, you two little buggers."

"Hi Sasuke-san!" Kagami said excitedly, trying to peer behind him. "Is Hiruzen in? We're all going to train. Kiyo-chan's taking us."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "On your birthday? Dedication right there. If it was my birthday I'd laze around in bed all day and force Hiruzen to make me breakfast." He laughed loudly before turning around. "Hiruzen! Get out here!"

Kiyomi heard the thudding of footsteps and then Hiruzen hurried out, smiling and waving his sword in the air. "I'm here!"

"Alright. Remember to be good for Kiyomi. Don't be a little rascal." Sasuke ruffled his son's hair and gave Kiyomi a wink. "I'll see you all later tonight."

Once the door shut, Kagami was talking loudly to Hiruzen, with Danzo contributing little. He had his arms crossed as he walked, looking moodily at the ground and occasionally kicking a stray rock. Though she did see that Kagami tried to bring him into the conversation, he always shrugged it off and continued kicking at the ground.

For a moment, Kiyomi saw a glimpse of the Danzo that she had seen in her old world – the one with bandages wrapped everywhere who looked completely and utterly evil. She worried for him a lot. It annoyed her, because it was difficult to worry about someone who seemed intent on doing stupid and reckless things all the time. In a sense, Kiyomi knew that she loved him. Same with Hiruzen and Kagami. They were innocent, in a way, and she wanted that to last forever and ever even though she knew it wouldn't.

"We're going outside of Konoha to spar, as well!" Kagami said, waving his hands around in the air. "I'm so excited!"

"It isn't _that_ exciting," Danzo muttered, rolling his eyes and looking just like the teenage boy he was.

By the time they reached the gates of Konoha, Kiyomi's ears were ringing from the loudness of the three of them. Well, technically two. The two shinobi guarding the gate gave her looks filled with pity as she walked outside of Konoha. Kagami led the way, leading them through the winding forest until they reached a rather empty clearing. She didn't know why they couldn't just train inside Konoha at the training grounds.

"How about Hiruzen and I against Kiyo-chan and Danzo?" Kagami suggested once they all were settled in the clearing.

"Why am _I _with Kiyomi?" Danzo asked.

Kiyomi smiled and ruffled his hair, which only made him go red and move away from her.

"You're the youngest," Hiruzen pointed out. "So therefore you should go with the oldest."

"Age isn't a measure of ability!" Danzo protested. "I could be better than both of you. Therefore, it might be unfair for _you_."

"We'll deal with that, then," Kagami said cheerfully. "What should the rules be, Kiyo-chan?"

"First team to have someone die," Kiyomi suggested offhandedly. They all started at her in horror, and she laughed. "I'm joking. First person to…bleed."

"But that means it'll be _short_," Kagami complained. "Maybe we should –"

"I'm the birthday _lady_, remember. It's my choice."

Kagami mumbled something under his breath before perking up and nodding. "Okay, then. First one to bleed! Threetwoonego!" His next words came out in a blur and then Hiruzen was attacking Kiyomi rather recklessly with his sword, obviously trying to only nick her just a bit so that she would lose.

Danzo and Kagami were clashing a bit _too_ harshly for Kiyomi's liking, but she didn't have time to say anything as she grabbed Hiruzen and threw him away from her as gently as she could. Sometimes she forgot her own strength. It had happened before, many times, and though all of them said that it didn't matter and it didn't hurt, Kiyomi still would feel bad afterwards.

Hiruzen was on his feet in moments though, his hands forming signs. Kiyomi felt her Sharingan come alive almost by instinct, and suddenly she could read his hands as easily as reading a book. Sometimes her own Sharingan surprised her, as well. It felt a bit _too_ strong, though she knew that it got weaker and weaker the more she used it. But it had the ability to make someone insane or kill themselves with a single thought that then sparked a genjutsu.

That scared her.

She let Hiruzen continue his feeble jutsus for awhile longer while she kept an eye on Danzo to make sure he hadn't lost any blood. He was attacking Kagami with a lot of anger, she noticed. His attacks almost looked they were meant to kill, not just draw blood. Kiyomi felt the urge to finish it as quickly as possible.

It was easy to look Hiruzen in the eye – the idiot wasn't even _avoiding _her gaze – and capture him in a genjutsu. Kiyomi decided to be an asshole, and made him think of just pricking the tip of his thumb to draw blood with a kunai. She watched him do it, his eyes blank and void of emotion the entire time. Kagami spun around and noticed, letting out a huge fake war cry as he lunged at Hiruzen.

It happened very quickly.

Kiyomi saw Danzo's hands tighten around his sword as he went for a stab and slash attack. She saw Kagami turn, shock in his ears, the war cry stopping within a moment. The moment she lost hold of the genjutsu, she saw Hiruzen blink, the haziness disappearing from his eyes as he saw what was about to happen.

She powered chakra to her feet and reached out and grabbed Danzo, not bothering to be gentle. His sword swung through air as he dangled by the scruff of his shirt. Kiyomi held it tightly, glaring at him.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing?" she demanded, dropping him on the ground and staring at him. "You could have killed him!"

Kagami looked shocked, his mouth open as he stared at Danzo, fear in his eyes.

"We won't learn anything if you just keep interrupting!" Danzo snapped, standing up and glaring at her. "In the real world, people take advantage of you! They stab you when you're not looking. No one's going to be honourable in a war, are they?"

"This isn't a _war_, Danzo," Kiyomi stressed, unable to keep the anger out of her voice. "Okay? This is a spar. A friendly spar."

Danzo rolled his eyes and picked up his sword from where he had dropped it after Kiyomi had picked him up. He sheathed it and stared at all of them. "I'm going home," he said shortly. "Have a nice birthday, Kiyomi."

No one said anything as they watched him walk off, head held high, not at all ashamed. Kiyomi felt her fists clench and anger surge through her. She wanted to grab him and shake him until he saw sense. But that wouldn't help anything, she knew.

"Kiyo-chan?" Kagami asked weakly. He was shaking, she saw.

"Don't worry," Kiyomi said quietly, crouching beside him. Hiruzen made his way over, still looking shell shocked. "You're okay, right?"

Kagami nodded and then threw his arms around her tightly. "We didn't ruin your birthday, did we?"

Kiyomi laughed, though it sounded shaky and uneven. "No, no, of course not! Not at all, Kagami."

She felt Hiruzen put a hand on her shoulder, ever the responsible nearly sixteen year old. Sometimes Kagami seemed the youngest, with his immature personality – unless he was around a girl, in which case he suddenly turned into some suave and mysterious man. Hiruzen always held that air of responsibility and calm, while Danzo seemed moody and brooding half the time. They were an odd group, but then again they didn't all work together. Danzo and Kagami were on a team, but Hiruzen was on a different one.

"Are you okay, Kiyomi?" Hiruzen asked, his voice polite and careful.

"I'm fine, guys. Really. You don't need to worry about me." Kiyomi grinned and this time it felt more normal. She ruffled their hair. "Okay? But I think we should all head home. Akiye's probably waiting in my house, ready to bombard me with beauty products."

They both laughed. Kagami let go of her and smiled. "Okay, Kiyo-chan! Hiruzen and I might stay here and spar for a bit. Is that okay?"

Kiyomi nodded and stood up. "That's fine. You two be careful, though. I'll see you tonight if you come." She grinned and started walking away, waving at them until they were out of distance.

When their loud voices faded, she stopped walking and stared at the forest around her. The expression on Kagami's face kept playing through her memory. That look of horror and fear. If there was going to be a war, that look would be on his face everyday. Kiyomi gulped and stared around the forest. She didn't want the war. For them. So that they could keep their innocence. So that they could keep on sparring and training obliviously and never have to face the real deal.

Maybe it was selfish. Maybe. But she really didn't care.

Kiyomi took a deep breath and put a smile on her face. Today was her day. She couldn't let anything ruin it.

**.**

If anyone asked her, Kiyomi wouldn't admit it. Well, perhaps she would – she _did_ have a fair amount of alcohol running through her but not enough to make her completely out of her mind. Just that perfect amount, where her veins felt like they were buzzing. But if someone were to catch her at a weak moment, she would probably say it.

She was having fun.

Generally the word fun wasn't in Kiyomi's vocabulary. Not because people in Konoha were boring but rather because she got bored easily. Small talk was stupid, as was anything to do with confusing and delicate politics. People should just say whatever they thought, in her well respected and obviously correct opinion. Here, at her brilliant party, there was a lot of noise.

Kiyomi found herself talking to people she had never met. Some were Uchiha, others were of other clans. Yamanaka, Senju, Hatake…the names gradually blurred into one. She hadn't organised any of it – it had all been Haruka, who had apparently not wanted to stop at _just_ their clan. Though there were too many people in a way, Kiyomi didn't notice.

Jammed between two people, both from different clans, as they shared stories about their war days was far from boring.

" – I thought I was going to drown, really, it was hell!" the man on her right said, his voice loud as his hands waved in front of his face. He looked like he was about to hit himself. "In blood. There's some things you think are bloody _impossible_ until you see it."

The girl on her left laughed, which didn't bode well as her mouth was full of food. Kiyomi didn't really care, even when the woman turned bright red and apologised profusely. It wasn't a huge deal – the food _was_ brilliant, and there was an abundance of it. People could say what they wanted about Hashirama being the God of Shinobi or whatever the hell they called him – Haruka was the God of Making People Happy. Or goddess.

Everything about the party was good. At first, Kiyomi had been a little overwhelmed by the amount of people flowing through the Uchiha gates. Haruka had arranged for it to be set all through the Uchiha neighbourhood, which _did_ mean things were a little spaced out but it hardly mattered. Most people were walking around, mingling, many coming up to her with gifts of all kinds. Flowers, weapons, armour, girly stuff that Kiyomi would pass on to someone else…

She got it all. And instead of her usual reaction of being annoyed and pissed off, she had laughed and smiled at every single bloody gift. Really, Kiyomi deserved an award.

"Can I steal her for a moment?" someone asked, and Kiyomi turned to see Ryuu standing there. He looked like he usually did – trying to hide the fact that he was happy by looking like a complete asshole.

The man stopped his story midway and nodded. "Oh yes, of course, of course! Kiyomi-sama, it was simply lovely to talk to you, truly lovely…"

Kiyomi gave him a smile. The type Mei would have been proud of. It was the type that Akiye often pulled whenever she wanted something. But Kiyom didn't really _want_ anything – she just felt good. Great. Fantastic. But possibly the most important – she felt relaxed. A rare thing, especially after the incident earlier in the morning. Danzo hadn't showed up to her party.

Ryuu offered his hand and when Kiyomi reached to grab it, he dropped it and started walking, grinning as if he were proud of himself.

"Asshole," she snapped, but she couldn't help but grin as she hurried to catch up with him. Her kimono was one of Akiye's _summer_ ones, despite it being autumn. It made things difficult, in a way, because she had to walk and make sure she wasn't either falling over herself. "You better have a good reason for interrupting."

"Do I need a reason? I didn't know the great Kiyomi-_sama_ needed a list of reasons whenever someone wants to talk to her." Ryuu stopped as he waved at someone before turning back to her. "What is it Kosuke calls you? Kiyomi-him –"

"_Stop_. I swear, I should ban everyone from adding stupid titles to my name."

"Right, right. I must admit, I quite like it when someone calls me Ryuu-_sama_. Especially women."

Kiyomi stared at him, shaking her head. "You have a freaking family," she told him, though in reality she kind of didn't mind.

If it ever came to some kind of Ryuu and Terumi epic show down – not that it would ever would, because Terumi would never do something like that – Kiyomi would side with Ryuu without hesitation. She didn't know how many years she had known him. Too many, probably. But he was practically her brother. They shared a last name. Well, she also shared a last name with Kosuke.

"I was only joking. I'll have you know I've been very loyal since my…wedding. Or at least, more loyal than before," Ryuu said, smiling.

"Right. I totally believe you." She stopped when she saw that he had stopped walking. They were near the middle of the Uchiha neighbourhood, where most of the people were gathered. It reminded her of Ryuu and Terumi's wedding, with the lanterns strung through the trees. But she knew she wouldn't get as drunk as she had on that night.

A few people stopped talking and stared at her as she sat with Ryuu underneath a tree, stretching her legs out and nearly crying with relief. Her shoes were rather painful. Kiyomi would yell at Akiye later on, if the damn woman ever decided to show up. Despite the fact that Akiye had helped her get ready, the idiot had disappeared afterwards, saying she needed to get ready. And since then, she hadn't been seen.

"How have you been going?" Ryuu asked, lowering his voice even though that made him harder to hear over the drunken cries.

Kiyomi stared at him, confused. "What? You dragged me out here to ask me _how I've been_?"

"Well, yeah. Why not?"

"I'm good." When he continued to stare at her, one eyebrow raised, Kiyomi narrowed her eyes. "Have you and Haruka been having some kind of brother and sister talk about me?"

"Nah. At least, I don't think so. If we did I can't remember it."

"Reassuring."

Ryuu grinned and gave her a wink. "Thanks. So no news? None whatsoever?"

"None," Kiyomi stressed, unable to keep the slight anger out of her voice. "Absolutely nothing."

"Nothing that concerns our dear friend Tobirama?"

If Kiyomi had a drink in her hand, she knew she would throw it at him. Or tip it all over Ryuu's precious hair. He loved his hair almost more than he loved a certain other part of himself. But she had no drink in her hand, so she settled for clenching her fists and giving him a forced smile.

"Awfully chummy, aren't you?" Ryuu continued, examining his nails idly.

"Are you like, about to give me some kind of sex lecture?" Kiyomi asked, making herself laugh even though she really didn't find any of this funny.

"That's gross." He wrinkled his nose and looked around once, before leaning in closer to her. "But he's not here."

The words made her heart jolt, just a teensy tiny bit because Kiyomi really didn't give two shits whether he was here or not. Hashirama certainly was, and Sasuke. He probably had other things to do. Maybe he was looking after Tsunade and Nawaki? Unlike Ryuu and Terumi, who had let their children run wild – with Yoshino bumping into table and sending food flying everywhere – Hashirama and Mito had left their kids at home.

"No," Kiyomi finally said, "he isn't."

Ryuu said nothing else, and they fell into what could be called a semi comfortable silence except it wasn't really silent. All around them people were talking, shouting to be heard above everyone else. Kiyomi didn't mind just watching them – it felt oddly comforting to know that people were happy even when she felt like things were kind of weird. No one cared that they wasn't any action. Probably because the action before had been _bad_. Weren't they bored with their lives? Didn't they feel like they had no purpose?

She nearly told Ryuu what she was thinking. She nearly said it, nearly said the words she hadn't really bothered to tell anyone. Maybe she had told Tobirama one time when they were both drunk and had been lying somewhere, and she had blurted out the words.

But here was the wrong place – with everyone around celebrating something just for her. Did they really care for her, though? Or was it just because she had that nice title in front of her name? Was it because her brother had been powerful? And her father?

"Am I a good clan head?" Kiyomi asked, unable to keep the words down. She turned to Ryuu, unable to keep the panic from her voice. "Am I?"

Ryuu paused, hesitated, and the panic spread. "I – well, yes. I'd say you are."

"I'm sensing there's a _but_ coming along."

He grinned, though it faded quickly. "Yeah. There is." He took a deep breath and looked at the sky, where there were tons of little stars. "Sometimes you get this look in your eye. And, well, I mean it's natural, you _are_ related after all…"

"What?" Kiyomi demanded. She had a feeling she already knew.

"Sometimes you get this look in your eye and it reminds me of Madara."

Kiyomi felt her hands clench once more. Her good mood was beginning to fade, and a headache beginning to form. She quickly shook her head and smiled brightly, though it felt unnatural. "Well, we _were_ brother and sister."

Except not really. Ryuu didn't know that. Sometimes Kiyomi found herself wondering if she was just like she had been in her old world – if she had the same personality as before. Or if somehow, she _had_ been born with those deadly Uchiha traits. Obviously she kind of had – after all, she had the Sharingan. But what if she was like Madara? Or Tajima? Because somehow she had been semi altered during the change or whatever she could call it.

If Kiyomi really _had_ been Madara's sister – his true, real, genuine sister – things would have been different. That gave her comfort. But it didn't change the fact that some people saw her as only Madara's sister. Never her own person.

"I shouldn't have said that," Ryuu said, sounding oddly apologetic. "You really didn't need to hear that."

"You've said worse."

"Yeah but that's all just me messing around. That was too…genuine." He shuddered. "Let's never have a conversation like that again."

Kiyomi laughed, even though she didn't feel like it. "I agree," she said, keeping her voice light. "But –" She stopped when she saw Ryuu wasn't looking at her anymore, but rather squinting ahead. She couldn't really see anything, but it wasn't like she was trying to.

"Is that – " Ryuu began before he stopped short. Kiyomi stared where he was, noticing it easily now. His hair always stood out, being white. But she didn't really care about him and the fact that he had finally bothered to show up. It was the woman next to him, all smiles and laughs. "That's –" Ryuu started once more, but she didn't allow him to finish.

"Someone you don't know," Kiyomi finished smoothly. "She isn't from Konoha."

Ryuu looked at her, smirking. "Are you jealous? She is quite hot. What's her name?"

"Tsubaki." The name felt like pure death on her tongue. Not that it was, really. Though technically this was _her_ party, and she could choose who she wanted. But that was a bit too petty.

To her dismay, they were approaching her, Tsubaki walking as if she owned the world while Tobirama looked…well, how he usually looked. Ryuu stood, and Kiyomi rose with him, making sure to narrow her eyes just slightly at Tsubaki, enough so that it looked like a glare but not too much so that no one would lecture her later.

"Kiyomi!" Tsubaki said, her voice somehow sounding loud but also respectable. She flashed a huge smile that looked stupid. Tobirama looked to be dawdling, talking to other people. "I did not know that today was the special day."

"Not that special," Kiyomi muttered, rolling her eyes. "I mean – yeah. Thanks."

"And who is this?" Tsubaki asked, her eyes looking almost scary as she stared at Ryuu.

"That's Ryuu."

"Your husband? I did not know you had gotten married, Kiyomi."

Ryuu started laughing hysterically, shaking his head. "No, she isn't my wife. That'd be creepy. And who are you? You're not from Konoha, are you?"

"Sunagakure," Tsubaki said, sounding proud. "I am only visiting to arrange a few things. You both know of the Chuunin Exams, correct? Generally they are held within villages, however we have been considering thinking of having all villages attend together. To strengthen bonds." An odd looking smile crossed her face but it disappeared as quickly as it had come.

"How wonderful," Kiyomi droned, rolling her eyes. It came as no surprise that this would happen. The shinobi ranks had been developed a few years ago by Hashirama and Tobirama, and after that came the certain exams which one would have to complete to go up a rank. ANBU still hadn't been developed, though Kiyomi couldn't really remember when that had happened.

Konoha and the other villages seemed to be well on their way to becoming what they had been. But Kiyomi knew that a war needed to happen. Well, it might not _need_ to happen but it seemed inevitable. She didn't think she was strong enough to stop a war. No one could ever be that impressive. The idea of war loomed everywhere, never quite coming close enough to be a threat but still hanging over everyone's heads. Hashirama worried endlessly over it.

"If I had known that it was your birthday, Kiyomi, I would have found you a gift," Tsubaki told her.

"Nah, that's not necessary. Really. I've already got enough gifts."

"I suppose someone in your position would." Tsubaki smiled. "You do not mind me being here, do you?"

Kiyomi desperately wanted to say no and then kick the stupid woman out. But then again, she had no reason to. Tsubaki wasn't going around and punching people or swearing loudly, unlike some drunken idiots. Besides, she would probably have Hashirama on her back moments later, explaining carefully to her about _inter village bonds._

"It's fine," Kiyomi finally replied, the words literally feeling like hell coming out of her mouth. "The more the merrier, I guess."

Ryuu snorted beside her but quickly hid it with a cough. "How about I get us all drinks? You like anything, right, Tsu – erm…Tsubaki!"

"I do not drink," Tsubaki told him, once again sounding proud. "It damages thinking."

"I'll have one," Kiyomi said. "In fact, I'll come with you. Tsubaki, you don't mind us leaving you here for a moment, do you? No? Good." She didn't bother letting the woman come up with an answer before grabbing Ryuu and dragging him over to a table. There were free drinks littered on it.

"Why do you hate her so much?" Ryuu asked curiously, pouring some sake and handing it to her.

"I do not drink, it damages thinking," Kiyomi mocked, rolling her eyes. "Did you hear her? What a little shit."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, but so? It's just a personal preference."

Kiyomi shrugged, draining her glass and putting it on the table. "Go distract her. Use those manly charms of yours. Maybe you'll learn what a little shit she is." She walked away from him, offering a smile to everyone she passed.

"I still think you're jealous!" she heard Ryuu shout after her, but she ignored it.

Jealousy wasn't an emotion Kiyomi felt. She felt anger, hatred, maybe a bit of happiness on a good day. Other than that, she didn't really think that she felt anything. Especially not something as petty as jealousy. And that was her honest opinion. It was stupid to be jealous of something, or someone, or whatever the hell it was.

Kiyomi didn't bother going up to Tobirama. She wanted to find Akiye. But the idiot wasn't anywhere around. Even when Kiyomi bothered to ask some of the more rambunctious drunks, they simply laughed and said they hadn't seen her anywhere. It annoyed her. Their relationship seemed to be a bit awkward and then Akiye didn't bother showing up? When she had helped Kiyomi get ready?

She tried searching for Kisho, hoping he would know, but he seemed to be absent as well. Kiyomi didn't really know Akiye's little brother's face off by heart, or his name. They all weren't there, though.

"Who are you looking for?" someone asked behind her. She knew who it was immediately, and when she turned, she had to roll her eyes. Tobirama had his armour on.

"This isn't some type of war party or whatever," Kiyomi told him.

"I had a mission beforehand," he said, shrugging as if it didn't matter. "Who are you looking for?"

"Akiye. You haven't seen her have you?" She already knew the answer.

"No. I could help you look, if you –"

"I've already searched the entire party. She's _obviously_ not here."

Tobirama shrugged again. "Something probably came up."

"I really _really_ doubt that." Kiyomi started walking, not necessarily to get away from him but rather to keep searching. It never hurt to double check. "She helped me get ready. Why wouldn't she be here?"

"Why is this bothering you so much?" Tobirama asked, stopping to greet someone before continuing. "It's stupid to worry about one single person not being here when you have hundreds of others here anyhow."

"Friends are generally worth hundreds of strangers. Sometimes. You're not. You're probably worth one stranger."

"Right." He didn't sound like he particularly cared as he followed her as she searched. "Did you see Tsubaki?"

Kiyomi snorted. "How could I miss her? She came up to me instantly. Did you know that she _doesn't _drink? Something about brain damage or whatever? How stupid is that."

"Technically speaking, it's probably more sensible than anything you've ever done."

"Shut up," Kiyomi said, but she hated herself for smiling slightly. "Now stop stalking me. I'm going to go get drunk and then try and search for Akiye again."

"You weren't drunk already?" Tobirama asked mockingly. But he nodded at her and left anyway.

She wondered if he had gotten her some kind of gift. He wasn't really the gift giving type but he had given her presents before. They had never been anything grand or tear invoking. Mostly joke gifts, like the type Ryuu often gave her. Once, he had regifted her with something that Hashirama had gotten him for his birthday. Kiyomi had slapped him that day, but the gift had probably been one of the best she had ever gotten.

Kiyomi found a table filled with random people with no one she recognised. They all greeted her like old friends, throwing up their arms and kissing her cheeks and slapping her on the back. She listened to them all introduce themselves as they pushed drink after drink into her hand. Though Kiyomi tried to keep half an eye out for Akiye, she soon found it hard to. The people around her were too loud and too many, and at one point she found herself dancing with one of them, even though she knew that she _sucked_ at dancing.

People got louder and louder. Kiyomi found herself flitting through tables, barely listening to conversations as she made her way around the party. In that moment, she didn't feel like she had before, when she asked Ryuu if she was a good clan head. Because no one seemed to care and everyone talked to her, laughed at something she said even if it was the stupidest thing. She was _the _Uchiha Kiyomi or something like that.

By the time Kiyomi thought it had to be around one in the morning, not even one person had left. Or perhaps they had, but they had left quietly. No one seemed to be making any effort to get up. Everyone still sat, laughing and chatting, a few people stomping and dancing around drunkenly.

"Kiyomi-sama!" Someone grabbed her shoulder to get her attention, and Kiyomi forced herself to face them.

"Yeeessss?" she asked, though it felt very hard to say that one word. "Who're – you?"

The boy looked young, very young. He had an innocent smile. "I heard you were looking for Akiye-san, Kiyomi-sama. I went outside of Konoha for some fresh air and I believe I saw her leaving. If you want I can show you?"

Kiyomi squinted. "_Huuuuh_? Akiye? What about her?" She felt like she needed to sit down.

"Yes, Akiye-san. I saw her leaving Konoha and I heard that you were looking for her. Would you like me to show you where I saw her, Kiyomi-sama?"

She didn't really understand what he was saying. Something about Akiye. But really, who cared about Akiye? This was _Kiyomi's _party. This was…Kiyomi time. "Sure, sure," she said, shrugging. If it got the stupid little boy off her back, she would go. He seemed insistent. Or maybe she was just too drunk.

The boy led her outside of the party, where the noise gradually began to disappear until it was gone completely. He took her to the gates, which were closed however there were two guards standing there. Kiyomi watched the boy approach the guards and say something to them. Within moments, the gates were sliding open and Kiyomi felt her hand being taken as she was led outside of Konoha.

It didn't feel very cold, but the boy seemed to be shivering for some reason. Or was he shaking? Same thing. Kiyomi followed him, focusing on putting one step in front of another. She felt like singing, or like dancing. But she was _outside_ of Konoha now, which was technically outside any protection. She didn't have her sword either.

"It's just further up, Kiyomi-sama," the boy told her, his grip tightening slightly on her hand. His hand was sweaty.

"Are you hot?" Kiyomi asked, then giggled. She wanted to slap herself but found herself smiling like an idiot.

"Just a bit," the boy admitted, stiffening. "This way, Kiyomi-sama."

There were lights ahead. The boy led her until she saw that there were little houses. Was this some kind of brothel? Kiyomi stumbled over a tree stump and the boy quickly grabbed her. He continued to lead her until they were in the middle of all the little lights. They were rather pretty.

"I saw her head somewhere here, Kiyomi-sama," the boy informed her, smiling. He had a very innocent smile. "Maybe we should search?"

"Yes yes, let's…search," Kiyomi said, nodding and pretending to be wise. She followed him, watched as he entered the houses – there were houses, which didn't make sense. This was the forest, wasn't it? It had to be. Her brain didn't feel like making sense. The boy emerged from the house and shook his head, gesturing to another one as he said something.

"How about we split up? You search those places and I'll search these, Kiyomi-sama."

Kiyomi nodded, clutching her head when she felt it throb slightly. "Sure. That'll be…fabulous."

She walked over to where he had pointed. The wood looked pretty and she found herself touching it, smiling. Kiyomi struggled to climb the steps leading up to the house, and she had to cling to the door to balance herself once more. When she knocked, it opened instantly, and she peered in.

A man looked at her, a condescending gleam in his eye. "Yes?" he asked politely.

"I'm lookin' for a girl. Brown hair, brown eyes, big…boobs." Kiyomi started laughing but quickly composed herself. "Yeah."

The man continued to stare at her. "There are many girls like that here."

Kiyomi stared at him for a moment, confused, before the realisation hit her. "Oh! No, I'm – yeah. No. Byeeee!" She turned around and stumbled down the steps, glancing back to see the man staring at her suspiciously. The boy was waiting for her in the centre of the place. He smiled when he saw her.

"Did you find her, Kiyomi-sama?" he asked.

"Nooo," she replied, grinning. "How about we head back? Who cares about Akiye? She's a – a grown woman. Or something. Maybe." She laughed. "Let's go back!"

The boy looked confused but nodded. "Of course, Kiyomi-sama." He took her hand – she noticed his palm no longer felt sweaty.

He led her back to Konoha, but Kiyomi hardly noticed. She didn't even know if that had been a little farming village or something of the sort back there. Did it matter? Akiye hadn't been there. But then again, Kiyomi had only searched one place. The boy couldn't have searched all the other ones. Or had he?

The gates of Konoha were still open when they returned. He led her through, nodding at the guards. Kiyomi struggled to stay awake as he walked her back to the party. She felt like taking a nice long nap. But she had her party, didn't she?

They arrived at the Uchiha neighbourhood and Kiyomi turned to him, smiling. "Thank you! You're very…erm, helpful!"

He smiled and bowed. "I only wanted to help, Kiyomi-sama."

She nodded and patted him on the back. "Right, right. I should get back to my wonderful friends now!" With one final pat on the back, she walked away from him. She suddenly remembered that she had never caught his name, or what clan he was from. When she turned around to ask him, he was no longer there. Kiyomi blinked, looking around, but she couldn't see the boy anywhere.

"Kiyomi!" Ryuu was beside her within moments. "Where have you been? We were all looking for you."

"I went for a walk," Kiyomi said, laughing and patting his cheek. "No need to worry!"

"Er…right. We found Akiye, by the way. She felt ill after she left your place. She's at her house with Kisho. He's been with her the whole night, looking after her. She was vomiting when Tobirama and I went there."

"Oh." Ryuu's explanation hardly went through her brain. She didn't really care anymore about Akiye. "Right. I might leave. I just – yeah."

He nodded. "Do you need me to…help you? You look pretty drunk, Kiyomi."

"Nah, nah, I'm fine!" She waved him away. "I'll be fine."

Ryuu still looked unsure but Kiyomi didn't bother to consider that as she stumbled away. People had left, she realised. Quite a few. The whole party still was loud but less so. Her house felt miles away but suddenly Kiyomi was there, pushing open the door and walking in. It looked the same as it had before she had left.

Kiyomi went into her room and nearly ripped the kimono off herself. It felt too tight and constricting, and she struggled to wiggle out of it. She kicked her shoes off, tearing out the pins in her hair and chucking them somewhere. By the time the kimono lay on her ground, Kiyomi grabbed a shirt out of her too big wardrobe and chucked it on, as well as some pants.

She went over to the mirror and stared at her reflection. Because of the pins, her hair looked wavier than it usually did. Her eyes looked rather bloodshot and red. Kiyomi reached for a brush – a gift from Haruka, of course – and shoved it through her hair viciously until everything looked semi decent. She got up and started to climb into her bed when she heard a loud thud, as her man door slid open and then shut.

"Fuck," Kiyomi groaned, and she knew that if some drunken couple stumbled through and started making out on her bed, she'd kill them.

Her bedroom door slid open and Kiyomi looked up, half expecting the drunken couple. Instead Tobirama walked through, holding something and looking totally _not_ drunk.

"Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?" Kiyomi grumbled, but she got out of bed anyway, if only to be on eye level with him. Well, kind of.

"I forgot to give you your…gift." Tobirama sounded amused, which was never a good thing. He held the box out to her, where it was wrapped in neat florally paper.

"Wow," Kiyomi said dryly as she took it. "Nice paper." She made eye contact with him and ripped it to pieces, only for there to be a box underneath. The quicker she opened the stupid gift, the quicker she could get to sleep. Her head was beginning to pound insistently.

When she tore open the top of the box, for a moment she could do nothing but stare at what lay in it. She looked up at him to see him smirking, as if he was so very proud of himself.

"I hate you," Kiyomi informed him. She stared at the _thing_ in the box before taking it and holding it between her thumb and forefinger. "Do you honestly think I'll ever wear this?"

"Try it on," Tobirama suggested, still smirking. He grabbed it out of her hands and held her head with the other as he shoved it onto her face. Within moments, she felt it surrounding her face and glared at him. "Go look in the mirror."

She went over to the mirror, already dreading it. It was worse than it felt. Surrounding her face was a metal abomination just like Tobirama's. Hers was even complete with the little leaf of Konoha. Kiyomi felt like stabbing the thing the more she looked at her reflection. Not to mention it felt _disgusting_. It clung to her face too tightly.

When she turned to face him, she glared. "I. Hate. It," she told him, pronouncing each word clearly. Kiyomi wrenched it off her head and threw it at him. He dodged effortlessly and it banged into the wall.

Tobirama raised one eyebrow and without bothering to consider the consequences, Kiyomi walked over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, staring him directly in the eyes. He looked at her unflinchingly. She kissed him suddenly, hard, before she lost her drunken courage. He stumbled back, and she felt him grab onto her to balance. They fell to the ground almost immediately, and Kiyomi pulled away, smirking.

"What a compromising position," she said lowly, trying to imitate Sasuke's voice before leaning in once more. Tobirama stopped her by grabbing her head.

"You have an annoying habit of kissing me drunk and ignoring me sober," he told her and somehow, she didn't really know how, he had gently pushed her off and stood up. He brushed himself off.

"Are you shitting me?" Kiyomi groaned. "I'm drunk! It's my birthday! That means I get whatever the hell I want. Besides, I'm a girl. I'm emotional and all that other bullshit."

Tobirama rolled his eyes. "Technically, it isn't your birthday now."

"_Technically_, you're the biggest shit in the world." Kiyomi stood up and glared at him. "So what? Maybe I just suck at talking about feelings. _Like you_."

"You're worse than me."

"I am _not_. I do talk about my feelings. I talk to you all the time about how angry I am, or if I'm tired or hungry."

He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face, as if he were suddenly tired. Kiyomi felt a stab of anger and wanted to shout at him. Sometimes she found him insufferable. Why couldn't people just accept some things rather than pestering her endlessly? He always did that. She was _allowed_ to not talk about certain things. She never once talked about Tobirama to anyone else, but she was certain that he talked about her to other people.

They had kissed more times than she cared to count. Most of the time, Kiyomi was either angry, pissed off, tired or drunk. She never ever had kissed him when she was happy. It wasn't like kissing him made her happy, either – if anything, it just made her angrier. The first time they had kissed had probably been more romantic than all the other kisses put together. Maybe he cared but _she _didn't. It didn't bother her. That was just how their relationship worked.

"Where did you disappear off to at the party?" Tobirama asked suddenly, interrupting the silence.

Kiyomi rolled her eyes. "_Great _conversation changer. Very subtle. Nice work."

"I'm being serious."

"Well, so am I!" When he only continued to stare at her, Kiyomi sighed. She suddenly felt a lot less airy fairy than before. Her head still pounded slightly, meaning she was going more into the hangover stage and less in the drunk. "Well, I just went for a walk. With some boy."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow.

"Not like that," she quickly added. "I think – he wanted to show me where Akiye was or something. I don't really remember. We didn't find her, anyway."

When he fell silent, Kiyomi stared at him. She sometimes did that, unable to stop herself. Because technically she wasn't meant to be here – in this world – and it unnerved her that no one else knew that. That they all treated her like she belonged when she really didn't. If she had been a normal Uchiha who cared more about family and the Sharingan, would Tobirama still tolerate her?

"I'm sorry," she finally said, after a lengthy silence. He looked up. "I just – you know me. I'm weird with these things. That's why. And don't tell me to say anything else. I'm not going to say anything more."

Tobirama nodded and gave her a brief barely there smile. He rarely did them. "That's fine. I have to go now, though. Don't hurt yourself. You can be quite stupid when you're drunk."

Kiyomi watched him leave and listened until she heard her main door slide shut. She wanted to call after him and apologise again, and then maybe kiss him just for good measure. But her brain felt muddled. How could she tell him how she was feeling when she didn't even know herself? Part of her wanted to tell him, wanted to tell him that she didn't belong in this world, that she never had, that she knew what was going to happen.

That she knew he would die. That he would sacrifice himself and die.

But the words would never come out and he would never believe them. Kiyomi knew that. She did. And even if she didn't want to, she could accept it.

With one last final sigh, Kiyomi went over to her bed and buried herself under the covers.

**.**

There was a loud thud on the door, and Kiyomi jolted where she sat at the mirror. She was _fairly _certain that she had nothing planned. But that had never stopped anyone before from banging on her door and demanding something.

She approached slowly, because though it was a common occurrence for people to knock on her door, surely people knew that they _shouldn't _be interrupting her now. Pretty much everyone had seen her dance around like an idiot, completely drunk. Everyone had seen her stumble like a fool and shout a lot.

The door opened before Kiyomi reached it. Sasuke stood there, looking haggard and hung over. That wasn't really the first thing she noticed. His face looked anxious. For a moment she felt slightly embarrassed that she wasn't wearing anything _that_ suitable for seeing people, before remembering that no one really cared. Or at least Sasuke had never cared or shown interest.

"Kiyomi," he greeted, his voice coming out in a rush. "We need you. Now."

"We?" she repeated, confused, before she saw someone step out from behind a tree near her house. Tobirama didn't even look sheepish at the fact that he had been hiding. "Oh. Well, I'm not _dressed_ so y'know, maybe you can wait a –"

"It can't wait," Sasuke stressed. "We need to leave."

If they had needed to leave so quickly, then why the hell had they bothered to wake her up? Kiyomi was fairly certain that two grown men could take care of things fairly easily, whatever they were. They weren't weak. Stupid, yes, but certainly not weak.

"Wait literally two moments and don't bother complaining," Kiyomi told him, not giving him a moment to reply as she slammed the door in his face and hurried into her house.

It was obviously something semi dangerous. Maybe. She shoved weapons on her, her sword, any spare kunai lying around. Tobirama's gift lay on her table and she stared at it for a moment, her hands itching to grab it. In the end, Kiyomi left it, and she was just finishing tying the knot on the stupid headband when she opened the door again. Both Sasuke and Tobirama were waiting further ahead.

"So what the hell is all this about?" Kiyomi asked as she approached them. "Couldn't you have gone without me?"

"Hashirama's orders," Tobirama said shortly, not even looking at her. The word order never went with the word Hashirama. They were too very separate things.

"Oh," was all she could say, still confused because like the true idiotic men they were, they hadn't told her _anything_. "But seriously, what's happening?"

By now they were nearing the gate of Konoha, and Kiyomi stopped when she saw who was standing there. Tsubaki stood there, looking as calm and elegant as ever. Beside her was Hashirama, but that wasn't what caught her attention. In the background, rising above the gate, she could see a small stream of smoke.

When Kiyomi approached them both, she felt as if Tsubaki was staring right into her soul and learning all her dirty little secrets. That was impossible, though, because if she was doing that then she would probably have started screaming.

"What's all this about?" Kiyomi asked, directing the question at Hashirama.

He looked tense, she realised, and a bit horrified. "I need you to go with Sasuke and Tobirama to investigate that." He gestured his hand towards the stream of smoke.

"You mean to say that you _waited_ for me to come before checking it out?"

"No," was all Hashirama said, his voice oddly quiet. "We did investigate it."

Kiyomi felt more confused than before. Tsubaki was still staring at her as well, her gaze just a bit _too _intense. No one would meet her gaze. It was like something out of her nightmares – she would wake up hung over and find out that she had committed the most horrendous act and that she could never be forgiven.

Though that had actually happened a few times. And she had never gotten this reaction.

"Then let's go," Kiyomi finally said, swallowing thickly.

Sasuke nodded and gestured for her to go first. That never happened. Even though the saying was _ladies first_ in her old world, in this she always went last. To protect her or some absolute bullshit. No one ever allowed her to go first, always saying things like _don't worry about that, Kiyomi-sama, we'll take care of it!_

Once they were outside the gate and it had closed, Kiyomi sped ahead. She knew that within moments Sasuke and Tobirama would catch up, so it made no difference. But she felt something in her gut, like in those dumb movies where people have a _hunch _or some crap. Kiyomi actually felt _sick_, though, felt as if something was swirling around in her stomach and threatening to come out.

It took her a moment to realise that it was probably the alcohol, not a gut feeling.

As she got closer to the smoke, she realised that it wasn't that big. The fire couldn't possibly be that large, for the smoke wasn't thick enough. Kiyomi had _seen _smoke, had seen things burning in extreme proportion. This just looked like a well-made bonfire.

There was no one ahead. She couldn't sense anyone, though there were a few left over chakra signals, as if a whole group of people had been there. When Kiyomi got close enough until she could smell the smoke, she saw houses. Wooden houses huddled together, farm land stretching along. The smoke came from the middle of all that. If she squinted, she could _kind of _see the flicker of flames. But not really.

Kiyomi didn't even notice Sasuke and Tobirama coming to stop beside her as she stared at the small town. It was one of the little farming ones that shinobi from Konoha often guarded. Some of the kids at the Academy came from here. But it didn't feel like that. It felt like a ghost town. She started to walk towards the small town, hoping that someone would come out and wave at her, be friendly to her or _something_.

No one came out.

The fire finally came in to view, and when it did, Kiyomi's feet stopped moving. She felt the alcohol swirl in her stomach faster, felt it rise up her throat until she swallowed it down, forced herself to not vomit. When she only continued to stare at the fire, she saw Sasuke continue walking, followed by Tobirama.

Bodies were piled together in a heap, their faces melted. The fire licked their skin and she could see that they had been burning for awhile. Some bodies were beginning to look unrecognisable. There was blood splattered around the fire, as if someone had lined everyone in the town up, slaughtered them and then burned them.

Sasuke and Tobirama were both staring at her, as if waiting for something. Kiyomi looked up at them, still unable to speak. She knew she would freaking vomit if she said anything. But then she saw where they were standing, saw what was lying on the ground near them.

It was the Uchiha emblem on a bit of cloth. She walked towards it, trying to ignore the heat of the fire and the smell of burning flesh. When she picked it up, she knew without second though what it was. _Her_ shirt. One of the many that were shoved into her closet. For a moment Kiyomi did actually think she was having a nightmare, that this was all some twisted, fucked up thing that her drunk mind had conjured up.

She pinched herself on her forearm and closed her eyes, waiting. Yet she could still smell smoke and feel Sasuke and Tobirama's eyes on her, feel them staring.

"I – I don't understand," Kiyomi finally said. The words came out shakily, the cloth in her hand feeling like it weighed a thousand tonnes. "I really don't."

Sasuke's eyes closed, as if he didn't want to look at her.

"If you think this was _me_," she began, suddenly feeling really fucking pissed off. "Do you actually think this was me? Are you both _stupid_? How the hell could you ever think that? I'm sorry but seriously, if I bothered to kill a whole village, do you think I'd leave a bit of my shirt like that? Do you honestly think the middle of a shirt comes off so _conveniently _like that? Are you both – "

"Neither of us said anything," Tobirama interrupted, actually looking at her this time. He looked apologetic.

"You don't have to. Can you sense my chakra on any of these things, other than, well, my fucking shirt?"

Both of them still didn't say anything. Kiyomi wondered if there was something else, like a message somehow written on the ground in her blood, saying something like _I, Uchiha Kiyomi, did this! _Neither of them bothered to say anything.

"_Say _something," Kiyomi snapped. "Stop standing there!"

"Your chakra _is_ all over it," Sasuke finally said, his voice sounding slightly confused and hesitant. "Tobirama checked when we came here."

Kiyomi closed her eyes and felt around. She wanted to scream when she realised he was right. Had she visited this town recently? Chakra left a type of residue. It was easy to tell if someone had literally _just_ been there, but harder when it was more particularly, like if someone was here three or six hours ago.

But she was fairly certain that she hadn't gone on a drunken walk. Sure, some Uchiha had wanted to talk to her and they had gone outside of Konoha but it hadn't been _that_ far. Had it?

"I didn't do it," Kiyomi said firmly, facing them. She wanted desperately to put out the fire, so that she wouldn't have to keep smelling the smoke and burning flesh and feel the heat of the flames. "I swear on literally everything."

She saw a flicker of a smile on Sasuke's face. "Hashirama believes you," he said carefully.

"And you? Do you?"

Sasuke hesitated for a moment. "Yes. I do."

"Then why are you silent? What are you waiting for me? For me to break down and say I did this? And – fucking hell, can we _put out the fire?_" Without waiting for either one of them to respond, KIyomi felt her hands form the signs for a water jutsu – she wanted to smirk in Tobirama's face because she was doing it with her Sharingan – and watched as it poured over the fire, until all that remained was wet wood and charred bodies.

"I didn't do it," Kiyomi said again, turning around to face them. "I didn't."

Tobirama nodded. "We know," he said, his voice still stoic and calm as if this wasn't affecting him at all.

"Then – "

"It was Tsubaki who saw the smoke. She was about to leave back to Suna when she saw it and called Hashirama, who called all of us," Sasuke began to explain. "We all went and saw the bit of cloth. Your chakra was all over the entire place. Tsubaki demanded us to get you and take you to the place to see if you would say something."

"Of course," Kiyomi said bitterly. "She thinks I did it. Of course she does, she just wants – "

"We all know you didn't do it and that you hate her," Tobirama interrupted dryly. "So let's not hear it again. We've already told you that we believe you. What more do you want?"

She wanted to slap him. She wanted more, of course she wanted more. Kiyomi wanted to know who got a hold of one of her many shirts and ripped out _just_ the Uchiha emblem – the only bit that anyone really cared about – and put it here. She wanted to know how her chakra had gotten here. And part of her, the tiny part in the very back of her brain, wanted to know if she actually did it.

Part of her wanted to know if she had actually lost it and murdered an entire town last night. But she knew she hadn't. She had gone for that walk with the Uchiha and they had searched for Akiye or something, and then she had returned back _straight away_. Then she had kissed Tobirama.

"Nothing," Kiyomi said shortly, turning away from them. "Are we sealing the bodies or is someone else?" She didn't know how she did it. After seeing death so much, she didn't really care. They were just people. People she didn't know and might have killed but probably hadn't.

"Someone else is about to arrive," Tobirama replied. "We need to head back to Konoha."

At once, Sasuke began to walk towards the edge of the town. Kiyomi stared at the pile of bodies and wood for a moment, aware of Tobirama waiting for her. She didn't have the energy to care or move, even when she saw two other Konoha shinobi appear beside the bodies and begin to seal them. It was as if she weren't there. She didn't feel sadness or loss or anything.

"I didn't do it," Kiyomi said firmly, more to herself than anyone. She closed her eyes and pinched herself once again. When she opened them, Tobirama still stood there waiting for her.

Very slowly, she began to make her way back to Konoha.

**.**

**A/N: **omg shoot me I have no excuses! I did start school like, literally on the day I said I updated...but even then, I so could have written this. I'm just a terrible human being xD I think I need to get back in the groove of posting chapters regularly and then I'll be all set._ ps this chapter is super unedited! gross  
><em>

but school is killing me at the moment sooo...yeah? I think the next chapter will be up in like...10ish days? Maybe less if I really feel...the feel? xD

ANYWAY i am so astonished by everyone being so freaking nice. Like seriously, what the hell? You guys are so brilliant. Literally I wish I could hug you all. Thank you thank you thank you thank you for everything! Your reaction made me so happy. So thank you so much for all your reviews/PM's/faves/follows! You're all super stars and deserve...thousands of dollars? If that's what you like? xD

Thank yoooou!

Abundant E


	3. murder

**-Silhouettes-**

**III**

**.**

When the door finally slid shut, Tobirama looked around once before allowing himself to bury his face in his hands. He counted only to three before looking up yet again and returning to his desk. His desk looked like chaos, even worse than it usually did. All morning he had been digging through bits of paper. All morning Hashirama had been in his office, chatting away to people about various things.

Sasuke was most likely gossiping to his wife about how Tobirama would never do this for anyone else instead of doing actual work. All in all, it was the usual routine that he went through everyday. Tobirama would pick up his brother's forgotten pieces and finish Sasuke's work for him. But this time, it felt different and he wished that they would be more helpful.

He buried his face in his hands one more time and began to count to three, but a knock at his interrupted him. Tobirama didn't even get a chance to tell the person to come in before the door slid open.

"Sorry, sorry!" Hashirama said when he saw his face. He smiled. "I thought knocking and then asking if you could come is banned when it comes to brothers."

"I don't know where you heard that from."

"Common knowledge." His brother approached the desk and slumped in the seat opposite him. He began to pick through what was on it, looking at all the papers, though he didn't seem to put that much attention in it. "Seems like a lot of work. What for?"

Tobirama raised an eyebrow. "Are you really going to play stupid?"

"That's not what I meant. We know she's innocent. You don't know to go through every miniscule detail and over analyse it. We know."

"That's not why I'm doing it," Tobirama said at once. "I'm trying to find out how did it."

"But I bet you if anyone started mouthing off about her doing it, you'd be able to have all this factual stuff about where she was and all that. Because you've read about a thousand different files." Hashirama gave him a wry smile. "Could be like an action packed romance story! With a touch of mystery, of course."

"No."

His brother laughed but it faded as he stopped to read a scroll, squinting to try and see the scroll better. Hashirama often squinted at writing, as if he hoped it would make more sense that way. "What does Kiyomi think?" he asked, his voice becoming serious.

"Not much," Tobirama said, shrugging. "She tried to blame—"

"Tsubaki. Sasuke told me. He sounded awfully amused."

Tobirama didn't bother mentioning that Sasuke had looked grim when they had seen the village. He had been quiet and hadn't had his usual loud booming voice to tell awful jokes.

"I doubt it was Tsubaki," Hashirama said, sounding thoughtful. "You would be able to sense her chakra all over Kiyomi's house. Did you find the shirt that had been ripped?"

"No. Kiyomi looked when we got back. I couldn't sense anyone recent being there that stood out. The person must have taken the shirt awhile back."

It had taken awhile for Tobirama to examine her house. He had checked and rechecked, examined and reexamined, as if daring himself to miss something. But in the end he had found nothing. Chakra signals faded and appeared in her house, as they always did. Nothing had seemed out of place.

"So it was planned," his brother conceded, leaning back in his chair and stretching his legs out. "Don't you just love mysteries?"

"Not ones that involve lives lost," Tobirama muttered, knowing that it would stir his brother up. Most of the time Hashirama never seemed to care about things. Whenever civilian's lives were in danger, Hashirama turned into a completely different person. His usual carefree attitude turned deadly. It rarely happened, though. Yet now, he watched his brother's smile fade as he nodded.

"You're right, of course," Hashirama admitted, looking guilty.

"I always am."

"Perhaps you should be Hokage, then. You can be serious all day, for as long as you want. And then I can go around and do all your dirty work with a smile on my face. Wouldn't that be brilliant?"

Tobirama shrugged. It was a joke. Everyone knew that it was Hashirama who deserved to be Hokage. He had the charisma and charm to hold everyone together. All Tobirama had was a workaholic brain. In a way, Tobirama didn't care. Some people just didn't matter to him. In Hashirama's eyes, every person who lived in the entire Fire Country was important. They were all under his protection, as he often said.

"I need to talk to Kiyomi," Tobirama told him, standing and grabbing a few of the more important papers on his desk. "I need to ask her some things."

"Of course you do," Hashirama teased. "I might look into a few things. There are a few perks of being Hokage, you do realise. And another thing. Tsubaki has generously offered to stay a few more days to help with everything."

"Right." Tobirama could just imagine Kiyomi's face when he told her. She would go off on a rant about how suspicious and strange that was.

He had never quite gotten her hatred for Tsubaki. Kiyomi didn't have hate for many people, or at least she claimed as much. But it was always Tsubaki who was the root of all evil. Sometimes Tobirama found himself believing it, only because he heard her angry rants.

"She might be useful." His brother clapped him on the shoulder. "Good luck."

Tobirama didn't know why Hashirama bothered to wish him luck. Life never had anything to do with pure luck. But Tobirama nodded in reply anyway and watched him leave, feeling his shoulders sag. It felt like the entire mystery — he hated referring to it like that — was in his hands, not Hashirama's.

Everything to do with Kiyomi always went back to him, in Sasuke and Hashirama's eyes.

The papers lying on his desk seemed to taunt him, as if waiting for him to come across something vital. Tobirama would then have one of those moments and everything would fall into place. He would know who did it and it wouldn't be Kiyomi. At least he hoped. He didn't think she was the type who killed an entire village when drunk. She did other things when drunk.

Tobirama grabbed the important papers, the ones that had involved him lying to get his hands on them. He didn't know what else to grab. Whenever he went to Kiyomi's, his arms would always be full of the work he had been too tired to do the previous night. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that he had never just showed up with nothing or something simple, like a bottle of sake. His arms had always been full, his mind always on work, work, work.

That was how they worked. Maybe Hashirama didn't understand, or Sasuke with his knowing glances that held a touch of pity. But he understood, and Kiyomi kind of did.

Their relationship consisted of arguing and bickering over things that didn't matter. Tobirama had never been the type to fantasise about his future wife. When he had been younger, all he had thought about was fighting and surviving. Never once had love or romance entered the scene. Hashirama gave him tips all the time, as if there was something wrong about his 'relationship' with Kiyomi.

The reality was, no one got it. No one understood except them. And that was fine by him.

He left the Hokage Tower and hurried through Konoha, avoiding most people's eyes. Not a thing was out of place. No one knew of the destruction that had occurred. Hashirama had yet to make the announcement. Everyone around him still seemed to be buzzing from last night, where as Tobirama had never cared about the night at all.

Konoha had never felt so peaceful. For once, it unnerved him. Tobirama wished that everyone was screaming, running around and wondering who killed that village. But people walked around at an easy pace, talking and laughing. There wasn't even any rain to match his mood — despite it being autumn, the sun had decided to shine.

When he had first walked through Konoha and ventured into the streets, he had loved the peace and quiet. Compared to how life had been before, with the constant paranoia and noise that came with being a shinobi, it was different. A good kind of different. The type where Tobirama could relax and take a long, deep breath. Now, the novelty had worn off and all he felt was unease at the peace.

The door to Kiyomi's home was open, as it usually was despite him telling her to lock it. Tobirama didn't bother knocking and walked in. Her house looked a touch bit messier than it had earlier in the morning. He heard her in her bedroom, an occasional thud as something hit the ground. When he slid open the door, Kiyomi stood in the middle of it, a bunch of clothes surrounding her. She looked up, her eyes widening.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, peering behind him as if expecting someone else to emerge. She looked odd, standing in her room, her hair all messy and her eyes frantic.

Tobirama placed the scrolls and papers on the table beside her paper. "I thought I would bring you these. And see ho—what you were doing."

Kiyomi's eyes narrowed and she approached the table. She grabbed the scrolls and looked through them. "What's all this? Where did you even find this stuff? I thought I only had access to some of this."

He shrugged. "I have my ways," was all he said. He noticed the clothes lying on the floor and frowned. "Closet clean out?"

"No. Obviously not. I just wanted to see if I had more clothes missing. Only one top, it seems. From now on, I'm going to be like you and only have about two different outfits."

Tobirama rolled his eyes and watched her as she read the scrolls. Kiyomi didn't look too fazed as she read it with her eyes narrowed. She frowned as her eyes darted up and down the pages before she set them down.

"I—" She stopped. "You don't need to investigate all this," Kiyomi said, her voice quiet. She was never quiet.

"Why?" he demanded. "An entire village was found slaughtered and you don't think we need to investigate?"

"We?" she repeated, looking angry. "No, this isn't a we. You investigate. Once you tell everyone, they're all going to think I murdered that entire village. That I'm some kind of unstable alcoholic who needs to be locked away. That my title, rank, clothes and all that crap should be stripped away."

"No one would think that."

"Yes, they would," she said, her voice firm. "I know the Uchiha clan better than you do. They've all been wetting themselves with impatience as they wait for me to fuck up. And now I have."

He didn't believe her when it came to that. The Uchiha clan seemed as loyal as they could get to her. They had never displayed any signs of betraying her before.

"I thought you said you didn't do it," Tobirama said, frowning. "You said—"

"I know what I said!" Kiyomi rolled her eyes and sighed. "I didn't do it. But everyone will think I did which is practically the same thing."

"It would help if you told me what happened. You disappeared last night and you still haven't said where to. I believe you. I've already told you that. But not telling anyone where you went sounds a bit suspicious."

She looked at him for a moment before fidgeting and looking away. Kiyomi didn't look up for a solid minute. When she finally did, she saw him staring and groaned.

"What?" she demanded. "Stop looking at me like that."

"Where did you go last night?" Tobirama asked once again.

"Well, I just went—I went to look for Akiye," Kiyomi said, putting the scrolls down. When he continued to look at her, she shifted, her arms crossing over her chest. "What?"

"Where did you look for her?" He did his best to not make him sound too judgmental. It didn't work, though, for her eyes narrowed and she began to glare at him. "It's just a simple question," he added.

"Outside of Konoha," Kiyomi replied, attempting to sound casual. "Don't ask me where, either. My head still hurts. I was far too drunk to know where I was going."

"Why would you go outside of Konoha?"

She frowned for a moment, as if trying to remember. Tobirama wanted to shake her but he didn't bother. It wouldn't do anything. If shaking her worked, he would have done it thousands of times before.

"Someone said they had seen her leave Konoha and showed me. We searched around for a bit. I think…" Kiyomi trailed off and shrugged. "He never told me his name, though. I don't think so, at least. I might be forgetting it."

"He?" Tobirama repeated, unable to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

Kiyomi started laughing. He had a feeling she thought he was jealous."Oh, please. I think he was young. As in, so young that I would practically be a—" She stopped, shaking her head with a smile on her face. "Nevermind. I don't know how to explain it."

He wondered why everyone found things so easily dismissible. Hashirama never seemed completely bothered by anything. Kiyomi usually managed to be a bit serious but she didn't seem to care this time around. Because she hadn't done it, he knew that. But no one else did. Tobirama knew that she hadn't thought hard about this entire thing. It wasn't to do with proving that she didn't do it — it was to find out who did.

Because the person had to be close to her. Perhaps that thought hadn't come to her yet, or she was ignoring it. It had to be someone who she trusted to enter her house often, someone who she was friends with. His mind went to Akiye, and how Kiyomi had gone to look for her. In his eyes, _she_ was the suspicious one.

"Look, if you were to line up a few people, I could probably pick him out. But Tobirama, I'm sure I'd notice if the person killed a few people when we were walking. I wasn't that drunk." Kiyomi smiled at him, as if she were confident of it.

"Have you looked through all the scrolls?" he asked, changing the subject when he realised she wouldn't budge.

"Well, no, of course not. There's too many of them. Couldn't you have just handed me the really important ones?"

Tobirama gave her a look and took the pile out of her hands. Although she had a point about the important ones, they were _all _significant. He pushed the ones that had given him the most unease.

"What's—" Kiyomi stopped as her eyes flickered down the page. She looked up at him. "Where did you get this? I'm fairly certain that this should have been on my desk, in my house."

"That's not important."

She handed it back to him and Tobirama examined it again. He could recognise Kiyomi's handwriting anywhere. It had an odd look to it, as if she wrote differently to normal people. The words had been written as neatly as possible, with her name signed at the bottom. Tobirama could remember when she had showed it to him almost a week ago. Neither of them had payed much attention to the words written on it.

The date of Kiyomi's birthday was written at the bottom of the scroll. Beside it was another name that he had heard a few times — Kosuke. Everything else on the scroll was neat besides that name. Kiyomi had once explained why she hated him, but he couldn't recall every detail.

"Well, at least that explains why Kosuke wasn't there," she said through gritted teeth. "Because he was guarding the outside of Konoha. Guarding." She scowled. "He—where is he? I want him here now. So I can ask him a few little questions. I bet you he'll conveniently say that no one saw him."

Kiyomi stormed over to her closet and went through the tops again, glaring at them. She turned back to him. "Why aren't you getting him?" she demanded. "An entire village just got murdered and you have a bloody suspect! Why did you come to me first? Why would you bother?"

For a moment he saw Madara, red eyes gleaming with a nasty smile on his face. But the vision faded and all he saw was Kiyomi, standing there looking pathetic. There was something in her eyes that reminded him of her brother. That defensive look that seemed to scream _I'm right and you're wrong. _Madara had always worn it so well.

"Someone's mood had a complete turn," Tobirama commented dryly. "Hashirama already talked to him. That's why. Hashirama thought that he wouldn't do such a thing."

Her shoulders tensed, her face raising. "What did you mean, he wouldn't do it? Of course he would! He's been waiting for something like this for years!"

"Anyone could have done it," he replied, unable to keep the harshness out of his voice. "But most likely someone close to you or had regular access to your room. I doubt Kosuke would be able to go into your room without anyone noticing. And besides, he said—" Tobirama stopped and shook his head. "Look, you talk to him for yourself."

Kiyomi glared at him. "Fine. I will." She made a move to walk out but he grabbed her before she could.

"Look, you need to stop worrying. Everything will turn out fine." He did his best to sound assuring, but comforting people had never been his forte. That had been Hashirama's job. He had never had to comfort Kiyomi before, anyhow.

It didn't seem to work. Kiyomi's eyes narrowed at him but she stopped moving, pulling her arm out of his grip. "Alright, then. But I'm still going to talk to him."

"Okay, okay." He rolled his eyes. "But look, it might not be him. It could be…someone else." He waited until he knew she wouldn't say anything else before he continued. "It might have been someone like, I don't know, Akiye."

Kiyomi stopped. She looked up and stared at him. "No," she said at once. "No. Never. No."

Tobirama blinked. "It was just a thought. She wasn't there last night after all and—"

"It wasn't her," she hissed. "It wasn't."

He could remember all the times Kiyomi had complained about Akiye. Had complained about their relationship being strained and awkward and weird. But now, she seemed to have forgotten that.

Tobirama remembered Sasuke's advice when dealing with an angry woman. "You just have to shut up and agree to whatever they're saying," he had said while drunk. Of course, that advice was probably not that legitimate. He tried it anyway.

"Right. Of course." He nodded. "I agree."

Kiyomi looked at him, frowning as if confused by his sudden change. "She didn't do it," she repeated. "Okay? I know she didn't."

"Alright. Just relax and clean up this mess."

"You don't get to lecture me about mess," she snapped at him. "You leave crap everywhere."

Tobirama shook his head. "Right. I get it," he said for the fiftieth time. "Do you want help cleaning it up?"

She stood up, holding one of her tops to herself. For one moment, she looked rather small standing by herself in the middle of her room. Unfortunately, Kiyomi veered on being taller than him. But she still wasn't.

"No," she mumbled, so soft that he almost didn't catch what she said. "I'm fine. You can leave."

He nodded and shut her door, making sure to be as quiet as possible as he left her house. It always freaked him out, how large her house was. It seemed big and empty, with nothing personal hanging on the walls. No decorations, no little trinkets on nice tables. The only things of value in her bedroom were her weapons.

His house was probably the same — full of impersonal items. But at least his was crowded with crap he didn't ever need. He had things scattered all over the floor, where as Kiyomi had nothing out of place.

Tobirama knew that he had other work to finish and complete. He couldn't focus on some stupid thing just because it involved Kiyomi. He could hear Sasuke laughing in his mind, teasing him about doing all this for a single girl. It wasn't just that. It was more to do with the fact that an innocent person had been framed for no good reason. She hadn't done it and she didn't deserve it. He knew that without a single doubt.

By the time he reached the Hokage Tower, he wanted to go back to Kiyomi's house and make sure she hadn't done anything stupid. He didn't have time to do that, though. There was too much work that needed to finishing. Tobirama needed to organise the exams for the graduating students from the Academy. People had made complaints about various other things and they all fell on him.

Tsubaki stood outside the Hokage Tower, staring straight at him. She began to approach him, her steps confident and her hair bouncing behind her. He forced his expression not to fall.

"Tobirama-kun," she greeted, ever happy. Her puppet was still strapped to her back. He rarely saw her without it. "I thought I would come and say goodbye."

He raised an eyebrow. "Very well, then."

Tsubaki laughed, as if she found those three words hilarious. "You do not have very good social skills, do you?"

He didn't know what to say in reply so he kept silent instead, staring at her.

"No matter. I thought I should head off. Hashirama-san was telling me someone from Konoha was leaving today as well and wondered if I would travel with them for a bit."

Tobirama didn't understand why she was telling him this. Maybe Kiyomi's hatred for her had gotten to him. "Who's leaving?" he asked, only out of politeness. He didn't care. Her pointless talk didn't interest him in the slightest.

"Oh, I forgot his name." Tsubaki frowned. "Ki—Kisho, I think? Yes, that might be it. I was talking to him earlier, as well. They are heading in the wrong direction, though. Not to Sunagakure." She smiled, as if the idea of her home pleased her that much. "I do hope you sort all this mess out. Give my best wishes to Kiyomi, as well."

He frowned, but nodded. "I will."

She smiled and it almost blinded him. She clasped his shoulder gently before she walked off, her puppet swinging. He saw more of her than he wanted to. Most of the time, it was Tsubaki who came to Konoha to arrange political matters. He couldn't say she wasn't good at it. She was never mean or nasty, and always was productive.

Unlike a lot of people Tobirama knew.

Work felt like it would now be tedious and boring if he tried it. He didn't understand how one simple conversation could tire him out and make him feel unproductive. Hashirama wouldn't mind. His brother never cared if he took a random day off work. In fact, he often encouraged it. The amount of times Tobirama had heard his brother tell him that he worked too hard was infinite.

He walked back to his house, taking the time to dawdle and stare at Konoha. Hashirama loved the village. Sometimes Tobirama thought that his brother loved the village more than he loved his family. But in a way, the village was his family.

It made sense. Hashirama had made the entirety of Konoha with his bare hands, in a way. He had crafted all the houses and the roads, grown the trees and brought the people together. His brother loved it because it had been his dream for a long time, and he had achieved it.

Once, his brother had told him that Madara had shared that dream. Tobirama found that hard to believe. In most of his memories, all Madara had been was angry and violent. There had never been a time when he had been compassionate enough to want to build and create a village. The only reason why he had helped build Konoha was because of Kiyomi.

Tobirama's house was near the back of Konoha. Most of the time, it was silent. People rarely walked down that way, and few people lived near him. He had no neighbours in a sense, as his house was secluded. Trees covered it and if someone didn't know it was there, they wouldn't be able to see it.

For the first time in a long time, there was noise. He heard loud shouting just around the corner which led up to his house. Tobirama walked around the corner and stopped as quick as he could. It was Akiye. He could recognise her anywhere, from the amount of times he had seen her lounging about at Kiyomi's. She would always give him sly smirks.

She was with someone he thought he recognised but couldn't put a name to. A Shimura, definitely. The bland brown hair and eyes gave it away. He looked worried and angry, but Akiye was the one making all the noise.

"—ya think I don't know that? It's not like I haven't thought about that. I just thought that—" She stopped all of a sudden and Tobirama realised that the Shimura was looking at him. Akiye turned and blinked when she saw him.

"Akiye," Tobirama greeted, unsure what else to say. They weren't friends and had never had a proper conversation.

"Hi," she said, her voice flat. She didn't look at all good. Her cheeks looked hollow, her hair a mess. But she didn't look sick, in his opinion. Tobirama just thought she looked exhausted.

"Who's this?" he asked her, keeping his tone neutral and polite.

The man smiled, though it looked unsure."I am Shimura Arata," he said, his voice quiet. "Pleasure to meet you, Tobirama-san."

The name sounded familiar. He had heard it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite remember. "Like wise."

Akiye fidgeted and forced a smile on her face. "Right, well, Arata, do ya have somewhere to be?" She shot him a meaningful glance. He gave her one right back, but within a moment he was bowing and walking away.

"You two know each other?" Tobirama asked. He wanted to ask her other questions about that night, but it seemed rude to do so.

"Barely." She snorted, waving it off. "What are ya doing around here, anyway?"

"I live near here," he replied. "What were you doing around here?"

"Visitin' someone. Y'know how it is. Always things to do, people to see."

"Of course."

They both stared at each other. To Tobirama, it felt like Akiye was scrutinising him. He had always had that feeling. She always had looked at him as if examining him. But then again, he had seen how she stared at other men and was glad that he didn't get _those_ looks.

"Well, I'll be goin'," Akiye said suddenly. "Good to see ya again, I guess."

Tobirama watched her leave. She walked with her head held high and shoulders back, but it looked as if she were exhausted. He had seen people walk like that all the time. Part of him wanted to tell Kiyomi about it. Wanted to tell her how awful Akiye looked. But he didn't. It was her problem, in a way, not his. Kiyomi seemed so certain that it wasn't Akiye that he couldn't be bothered trying to convince her otherwise.

He walked back to his house, willing his brain to shut up and be silent.

**.**

Kiyomi waited two long days before speaking to Kosuke. She didn't want to appear too aggressive. Then again, she wanted to grab him by the scruff of his top and demand answers. Maybe she could even get in a punch or two.

At the end of the first day, Hashirama had made the announcement to Konoha about the small village. He had told people not to worry, that they were all dealing with it and that it would be over soon. When Kiyomi had listened to him, she had believed it herself. But the people weren't so convinced — as they had left, she saw the looks they sent her.

It had been impossible for him to leave the information about her out of his speech. Despite the fact that Hashirama had stressed that it _wasn't_ her, people made assumptions. Kiyomi knew that they were all thinking she was an alcoholic who slaughtered entire villages.

Kiyomi had hid in her house for that second day. She didn't want to leave and see peoples' expressions. Tobirama hadn't visited. No one had. She didn't care that much. There had been things to do, anyhow.

She tried to keep herself calm as she walked to Kosuke's house. Tried to clear her head, banish the thoughts of stabbing Kosuke and leaving his head hanging outside the Uchiha neighbourhood. Those thoughts were inappropriate and not helpful. If she continued to think about it, she was worried that she would actually do it.

Kosuke's house was near the edge of the neighbourhood. Madara had given him that house on purpose. Most of the people who were hard to deal with were on the outskirts. Their houses were blander than the others, as well as smaller. There were a lack of trees and pretty plants around. Only stone footpaths and wooden houses.

The people in this part stared at her, often with hostility. Kiyomi didn't know most of them. They were people who Madara had put there. She was hated because she was his sister.

Once Kiyomi climbed the steps to Kosuke's small porch, it took her awhile to knock. She paced the porch, staring at her hands and willing herself to be calm before she spoke to him. When she finally raised her hand to the door and knocked, she almost felt the urge to jump back as if it would explode. But nothing happened. In fact, she didn't even hear footsteps approaching for someone to open the door.

Kosuke took a long time to open the door. When he finally did, he took one look at her and raised an eyebrow. "Well, well, if it isn't our beloved clan head," he drawled, smirking. It looked odd on him. It made him look like a teenage boy. It made him look like Yoshino, but Kiyomi would never admit that. "Come in, come in."

"No, actually. This won't take long."

He looked surprised. His smirk faltered and for a moment he looked unsure. "Very well, then. What is it?"

"I trust you've heard," Kiyomi began, keeping her voice light. "About the village."

"Well, yes. Everyone in Konoha heard." For once he didn't sound mocking. She had half expected him to make some type of joke about her being a murderer.

"So you know that all the evidence points to me, then."

"Get to the point."

She glared at him, but he stared blankly back. It wasn't like the time when Kiyomi had been sending death glares at him across a room while he smirked, as if he had known he had won. If it had been him fighting instead of Yoshino, he would have won. Because as talentless as he was — or so Ryuu claimed that he had no gift at fighting whatsoever — she had only been thirteen. A rather moronic thirteen year old girl.

"You don't like me very much," Kiyomi said, trying to sound as kind as she could.

"If you're about to stand there and accuse me of this, then I'm going back inside," Kosuke snorted, stepping away and beginning to shut the door.

Kiyomi shoved her foot between it. "You were meant to be guarding the village. I have it written down. If you want I can go back to my house and find it and shove it in your face. You were meant to be guarding those people. So why weren't you?"

He looked confused for a moment. "Guarding?" he repeated.

"Yeah, guarding. You know the thing you do where you protect people to make sure nothing happens?"

"I know what it is," Kosuke hissed furiously. "I was told that someone else would be guarding it."

"That sounds so believable," Kiyomi snapped, pushing the door open further. She was taller than him, to her relief. She almost towered over him, but he didn't seem fazed by it at all.

"It is. I was with someone last night. You can ask them, they'll tell you I was in Konoha the entire time. I just did not feel like joining in the celebrations for our esteemed clan head."

Kiyomi felt her hands twitch and she wanted to wrap them around his neck and squeeze. But that wouldn't solve anything. She took a deep breath and smiled sweetly.

"You were meant to—"

"I know," he said, irritated. "But I got a scroll from you. I have no idea when. A few days before your little party. You said that someone else would be covering it."

"Show me that stupid scroll, then."

Kosuke looked even more furious. His eyes narrowed. "I burnt it. As you generally do when people send you scrolls containing sensitive information."

"So you think that by saying you burnt it, that excuses you from—"

"Why don't you ask Akiye where she was last night?" Kosuke interrupted, his voice smooth. "Why don't you ask her why she wasn't there? Where she was? Are you too scared? Is that it, Kiyomi? Too scared to confront a friend about whether she did it. But it's easy to blame me, isn't it? You love putting the blame on other people."

"Shut up," Kiyomi snarled, grabbing his arm and applying chakra to it before squeezing. He didn't even flinch. "Akiye was sick. You have every reason to want me gone, don't you? You want me dead or something, because—"

"Are you joking?" He started laughing. "I'd be stupid. Everyone in this entire clan wants my head ripped off, and you'd think I'd be dumb enough to try something against you? No. I'm not like my son. I value my life enough to not toss it away for some petty chance at revenge."

She stopped. It took all her willpower to stop her mouth from hanging open. Never once in their conversations had Yoshino been brought up. He always remained that unspoken taboo topic, despite the fact that it had happened fifteen years ago. It didn't hurt. It was more a jolt, a heavy shock that ran through her body.

Kiyomi often forgot that Kosuke was his father. They seemed so different to her. In her head, they weren't related. In her head, Yoshino had a kind and caring father.

And in her head, she had never imagined that Yoshino dying had ever affected Kosuke. It just didn't make sense to her. He had put his son up to fight her without a second thought. But he had thought that he was stronger than her, and he had been right. Kiyomi had never bothered to think if Kosuke blamed himself, or if he hated himself for what he had done.

She had never thought that the clan hated him, either. He just was there. Sometimes she heard the whispers, had caught someone once or twice stating that he killed his own son. But they had all been stupid people who had said such thing. Kosuke didn't seem like the person to listen to petty talk.

"I—" Kiyomi began, but stopped. He made sense. He always had, in their meetings, despite the jibes at her and everyone else. "You don't have a copy of that note that you claim I sent," she finally got out.

He blinked, staring at her as if shocked by her sudden calmness. "Yes. I have no copy of it. And it was definitely your handwriting."

"Oh. And did someone give it to you?"

Kosuke shook his head. "I found it on my desk. In my house," he explained.

"And you didn't think to say something? To mention that someone had broken into your house?"

"You're clan head. You can do whatever you want." There was a slight sneer on his face, but less than usual. "I thought you had put it there."

"Okay." Kiyomi took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm. She could do this. Tobirama had said so himself. Everything would be fine. It would all work out. "If you find that note somehow…or anything at all, come to me. It would be very helpful."

Kosuke looked even more surprised. His eyes narrowed, and he stared at her. "Very well, then. I will." He gave her another look, as if he were expecting her to stab him right then and there. Finally, he closed the door behind him.

She was left alone on his porch, staring blankly at the door and wondering what the hell to do. Akiye. Tobirama had mentioned her, too. After all, she had been absent from the party. Ryuu had said she was sick but other than that, there was no proof. Akiye had been acting weird for years. But something like this didn't take years to do.

Kiyomi refused to think about it. It couldn't be Akiye. It wasn't. She knew it in her heart. Or at least, she hoped so.

A few people stared at her as she walked back to her house. The news still seemed to hang in the air. These were meant to be people from her own clan, people who trusted and respected her. Instead, they glared at her and as she neared her house, Kiyomi saw someone grab their child and usher them away.

Her house was blissfully empty and quiet. She had time to think. She could recuperate and fix everything by herself. It would be difficult but she knew she could do it.

The moment Kiyomi sat herself down on the couch, leaned her head back and willed herself to relax, she heard a knock at her door. It was quiet and tentative, and for a moment Kiyomi thought that Terumi had come to check her eyes. She stumbled over to the front door, sliding it open and blinking when she saw who it was.

It was Akiye. She looked ill to the point where Kiyomi wanted to tell her to lie down and have a nap. There was none of the usual Akiye — the vibrant woman with her hair done stylishly and a brand new kimono. Her hair was piled on top of her head, strands hanging in front of her face. She looked…ill. Just as she had said she was.

"Kiyomi," Akiye greeted, her voice weak. "I thought I should come and apologise. For missing ya birthday."

"I—no, you look—" She stopped. "No, it's fine. Honestly. Have a seat, you look like you're about to fall over."

Kiyomi had to help Akiye into the house, and then lower her into a chair. When Akiye was finally settled, her eyes closed as if she were tired of looking at the world.

"I heard about it. The village." Akiye's voice hung in the air. "I heard ya shouting at Kosuke. Ya woke me up."

"I'm—"

"No, don't bother apologisin'. I don't care. I don't understand why anyone would do that. Why anyone would do such a thing…" She trailed off, and her eyes opened once more.

In all of Kiyomi's life, she had never once seen Akiye cry. But she watched as Akiye hunched over in her chair, holding herself as she suddenly choked on tears. Even her fingers looked bony and too thin. She had never ever seen her like this before.

"Fuck," Akiye breathed, wiping her face with shaking hands.

Kiyomi couldn't move. She could only stare as Akiye struggled to gain composure, as she wiped her face with the hem of her kimono. Part of her wanted to get up and give comfort, hug her and hold her close but that had never been part of their friendship. Their friendship had always been filled with laughter and sake, and then the awkwardness that settled in like a storm.

"Do ya know who did it?" Akiye asked, her voice low and hollow.

The words got stuck in Kiyomi's throat. She couldn't help but think of Tobirama as he grabbed her shoulder and whispered those words in her ear. Don't be shocked if it's her, he had said. Don't be shocked. But she would be. If Sasuke betrayed Tobirama, would he be shocked? Of course he would. No words could prepare anyone for betrayal, no amount of warning. Especially words she ignored and warnings she didn't care for.

"No," Kiyomi replied carefully. "I just thought—with Kosuke and all."

Akiye forced a smile on her face. It looked wrong. "No, he wouldn't do it. He'd be a fool, Kiyomi, if he did. No one would be that much of an idiot and pull such a thing. He's already hangin' by a thread."

"That's what he said."

"It is. And I believe him." Akiye leaned back once more in her chair and closed her eyes, as if that were final. "I believe him. Ya should too."

"Hashirama can decide whether to believe him," Kiyomi said, though she knew that he would believe him. Hashirama trusted too much.

Neither of them said anything, and Kiyomi closed her eyes as well and waited. She wanted it all to go away, for her to open her eyes and see Akiye beaming, holding a cup of sake in her hands. She wanted Tobirama to appear and tell her its okay, for Madara to suddenly walk through the door with a huge smile on his face — but of course, that would never ever happen.

When she opened her eyes, Akiye was staring at her.

"Just ask me," Akiye said, her voice sounding strangled.

"What?"

"Just ask me. Ask me if I did it. Ask me if it was me who killed them."

Kiyomi's mouth dropped open and she clenched her fists. "No, Akiye, I would never—"

"It's only natural," she continued. "I understand. I heard Kosuke shouting at ya. I heard what he said. Ya have to admit, it did make sense. Everything he said made sense. Stop denying it just 'cause I'm ya friend."

"Is this some kind of stupid test of friendship? Because it isn't working." Kiyomi felt her hands shake but she forced them to remain still. "I don't think you did it. I understand that this is a big deal, a whole village dying, but it doesn't have to become some kind of crappy test of friendship where we all blame each other and no one trusts anyone."

Akiye's lips twitched, though she still looked as hollow as before. "I know," she murmured. "I know."

Even though it would have countered everything she had said before, Kiyomi did want to ask her. Just to put it out there, to confess the doubt. She knew that no one else wanted it to be another village — Hashirama hoped it was an inside job. But Kiyomi wanted it desperately to be someone else, for it to be Suna or even Ibuki trying to get revenge. That would be better than it being someone close, someone she knew and was friends with.

She didn't ask, though. She got up and made them both tea, handed Akiye a cloth to wipe her eyes with and sat back down. Kiyomi changed the subject, turned it to something else, asked her how her family was and how everything was going. The subject of the village wasn't brought up again. And when Kiyomi went and helped her to the door, she kept her mouth shut.

"Come over tomorrow," she said instead of asking the dreaded question. "We can talk more?"

Akiye smiled wearily. "I'll try."

Their hug was half hearted, Akiye feeling too scrawny and shaky to properly hold. Kiyomi watched her leave, watched her hobble away as if she didn't have enough energy in her legs. She shut the door behind her and leaned against it, staring at the ceiling. After one deep and long breath, Kiyomi rose and went back into the lounge, picked up a scroll and began to work.

**.**

Outside of Konoha, Kiyomi could pretend she was some type of random civilian, someone lost and traveling through the woods. No one was there to correct her and inform her that she had something to do, some tedious meeting to attend. It was just her and a lot of trees that could never lecture her about anything at all. She liked it when there was nothing but forest surrounding her. It had been that way since as long as she could remember.

If she ever found a way back to her old world, Kiyomi knew that she would definitely never ever live in the city again. Even the idea of living in some fancy tall skyscraper disgusted her. She couldn't even imagine eating the type of foods she had in her old world, either. The taste of ice cream had never been so hard to picture before.

Her old world felt more like a dream than anything, now. Kiyomi could never quite picture it. Sometimes she had dreams that she thought were memories. Daichi often appeared in them, always smiling and laughing with her. A lot of the time they would be doing stupid things, like the teenagers they had been.

The dreams always felt far away. Kiyomi wondered if her entire experience in _this_ world was a dream. Maybe she was lying in a hospital bed somewhere, with her parents beside her. She couldn't even remember her parents, though. The only person she could remember was Daichi.

Kiyomi didn't feel particularly tired or exhausted despite everything. It had been one of the weirdest, tedious and most annoying weeks of her life. Maybe not of her life. But definitely since Konoha had been created and Madara had died. She could barely remember her birthday night. As much as she tried to conjure up an image of the young boy who had led her to the village, she couldn't quite get the details right.

Tobirama had even lined up various people. None of them had sparked anything in her mind. She hadn't recognised any of them.

"Why are you hanging upside down from a tree?"

Kiyomi struggled to make out the shape of Tobirama from where she was hanging. But the white hair made him stand out like a sore thumb. She had never understood why Hashirama and Tobirama looked so different. Their hair colours were polar opposites. They both had told her that one of their brothers had miscoloured hair — a bit of black and a bit of white.

"The blood rushes to your head," Kiyomi told him, though it felt a little odd to speak. "It makes things look kind of weird. And cool." She focused the chakra away from her feet until she was falling to the ground. At the last second, she righted herself and grinned at him.

"How productive," Tobirama drawled.

"Well, I could be doing less productive things. You never know. I could have been thinking about something really important."

"I doubt it."

She rolled her eyes at him and walked away. He didn't even bother following. Sometimes, Kiyomi wondered why she put up with him the way she did. Ryuu always asked her what was so different about him and why she kept him around. It was a question she didn't know how to answer.

Kiyomi knew that she liked beating him. A lot. The more she won against him, the better she felt. It didn't matter what she was beating him at — a spar, who could hold their breath the longest, who could cook the best meal — as long as she won. That didn't seem like a good answer and when she had told Akiye that was why she put up with him, she had snorted.

"You shouldn't be outside of Konoha," Tobirama said quietly as he approached her. "People might assume—"

"Assumptions are pieces of shit. Who cares what people I don't even know assume?" She laughed. "Honestly, you worry too much about things that don't even matter. And then you don't worry about things that do matter."

"Right."

He didn't say anything else. Kiyomi stared at him, waiting for anything else. She felt the urge to run, to punch something, to spar. All those stories Madara had told her about bloodlust that she had dismissed as him being a psychotic male idiot were now coming back to haunt her. Perhaps she was related to him in some way — she couldn't describe it. There was something so appealing about that rush of adrenaline, the way she knew that her life was kind of on the line.

Even if it was just a spar, generally Tobirama acted as if he was going to kill her so it felt rather real.

"Spar with me," Kiyomi pleaded, feeling desperate. "Please."

"What?" Tobirama asked, looking amused.

"I feel like throttling you into the ground, y'know?"

He cracked a small smile. Sometimes Kiyomi wondered if she imagined them, they were that rare. She never saw him do them in public unless he was alone with Sasuke, Hashirama and her. Even the ones he did were tiny, little quirks of lips as if he were too scared to smile. In a way, Kiyomi found that sad. Never once in her life had she been afraid to smile or to laugh, even if she felt bad. There had always been someone around her who had made her grin when everything turned into a huge mess.

She wondered what would have happened if she had never been dragged into this world. If Tobirama would have continued to live inside his little shell and forget that whether a person was good or bad wasn't decided on their last name. Kiyomi wondered what would have happened if it had just been Daichi in the world. If she hadn't been tossed into it and had instead died all those years ago.

"What are you thinking about?" Tobirama asked quietly, looking at her.

Kiyomi blinked and laughed. She doubted she'd ever tell anyone about those things. That was something insane. It sounded insane to her. To be inside a world for that long when she didn't even belong in it. "I was thinking about how I'm going to beat your ass into the dirt," she told him before she lunged.

He dodged almost instantly, ducking as she stopped herself from landing in the dirt. Kiyomi saved herself by rolling smoothly on her feet, but not before she felt a sword swing and then she was off again. When she landed on the other side of the clearing, Tobirama looked amused. A few strands of her hair lay on the ground in front of him.

"I could have sliced your neck open," he said as he approached her.

"Maybe I just wanted a haircut." Kiyomi felt one of his stupid clones behind her and quickly veered to the left.

She hated him for using that jutsu. At some point, he had obviously created it — and then sealed it into a scroll. But Tobirama guarded it as if it were a family secret. No matter how much Kiyomi pestered, blackmailed or bribed him, he never gave it away.

"You're going to have to teach me that one day!" Kiyomi shouted as she disappeared off into the trees, making sure to laugh loudly.

In response, she heard the gush of water before she felt it. It clashed into her and Kiyomi half wished it was summer, not almost winter. She could remember various summers in which all she had done was lie in Tobirama's house, asking for a water fight. He had always responded with some serious answer, and she could hear his voice in her head, _my jutsu's aren't meant to be used for your stupid games!_

She felt the water dripping off her hair as she landed on the ground, smiling as he appeared again.

"You asked for a spar," Tobirama said calmly. "A spar doesn't mean you running around and dodging things."

"Haven't you noticed that's how I treated everything?" Kiyomi countered, smiling as she walked over to him. His stance dropped into an offensive one and she held up her hands.

"Why are you so happy?" he asked, looking confused. He dropped the position and walked over to a tree trunk, sitting down and kneeling against it.

"Am I not allowed to be?" She sat down beside him, leaning her head back against the trunk.

"I thought that with everything happening…" Tobirama trailed off and shrugged. "I thought you would be angry. Or stressed."

Kiyomi turned her head to look at him, only to find he wasn't even looking at her. He was staring straight ahead, into the distance as if he were stuck in his own head.

"Well, I am," she admitted. "I just—it's going to be okay, isn't it? You said so yourself. That all of this will settle. You said that it's been two weeks and nothing has happened yet."

"Don't take my word too seriously," Tobirama said, and for some reason he sounded tired. "I'm not always right."

"Is the great Tobirama admitting that he isn't always right?" Kiyomi stood up and kicked him gently in the side with her toe. "Come on. Someone's obviously too busy moping about. You only ever insult yourself when you're pissed off. Or mopey or whatever. Usually you're too busy insulting me to notice your own many flaws." She offered him her hand.

Tobirama grabbed it and she helped him up with a little help from her chakra. He was a grown man, after all.

"What would you do without me?" Kiyomi asked mockingly, tapping his stupid metal forehead thing.

He ducked under her arm. "I would probably be doing far more productive things," he retorted, rolling his eyes as he started walking back. "And hurry up. You have a meeting this afternoon. An important one."

"That's what you say about all of them," she shot back. "Half of them turn out to be useless and stupid, anyway."

Tobirama didn't reply and instead kept walking. It was because he knew she was right. He always ignored her whenever that happened.

"If this meeting ends up being boring and stupid," Kiyomi warned as she caught up to him.

"It's about everything that happened. It might be boring but it won't be stupid." He looked at her as he walked. "You have to take it seriously."

"I am," she assured him. "I already told you. It will turn out fine."

Tobirama kept walking. She had a feeling she knew what he was thinking — the same thing as her. An entire village — albeit a small one — being destroyed could never really 'turn out fine'. The village had been destroyed for a reason, which seemed to be making her appear to be the murderer. Something like that could never turn out fine. Perhaps it could turn out okay.

Kiyomi put her hand on his shoulder. He gave her a weird look. "I'll sort it out. I swear on my soul," she told him quietly.

He snorted. "That doesn't mean much."

"What do you mean? I just swore a solemn oath on my—"

"You don't have a soul."

She removed her hand and glared at him. "Get out."

"This isn't a house," Tobirama pointed out. "Maybe you don't know what one looks like. Four walls, one floor, one ceiling."

Kiyomi clenched her fist and swung at him. It hit hard but to her dismay, the 'Tobirama' exploded into nothing but a pool of water. She stomped on it, glaring viciously at the water. In her head, she could picture him already in Konoha, lying on her stack of pillows and laughing.

**.**

**A/N: **who sucks at updating. me!

okay, this was meant to be like a bit longer with a bit more to it BUT I decided to split this chapter into two. So if it feels a bit like more should happen? Yeah. More should happen xD I'm still trying to figure my way out around third person. I've written it before but like there's different ways to write it so I'm kinda experimenting a bit. THIS IS SO UNEDITED BY THE WAY

okay, i'm so sorry for the wait school is a piece of crap. I hate it but I'm hoping that things will pick up from here and I won't take around a month to update. I'm aiming for every two weeks or 10 days. Yeah.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT YOU GUYS, YOU'RE ALL BRILLIANT! Thanks for the faves/follows/reviews/PM's. You're all brilliant and I'm sorry for taking so long.

Abundant E


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